Learning To Live
by TheLovelessRose
Summary: Fem!Harry. Harelda thought that once she killed Tom, everything would finally calm down. She was wrong. Suddenly found with only one living friend, and on the run, she finds herself hiding in Japan and going to a school where tennis is everything...
1. Chapter 1: The Change

-x-

**Story Title: **_Learning To Live._

**Warnings:** **G**_**ender-bender (Fem!Harry), **de-aging Harry**,**__ strong violence, gore, past abuse (physical and sexual) ,use of alcohol (underage) and cigarettes (underage), language, possible adult situations, Slytherin!Harry, strong!Harry, Very good tennis playing!Harry, and mild bashing of both light and dark sides._

**Story Rating:**_ Somewhere between T and M; may change to fully M._

**Chapter Rating:**_ K._

**Chapter Title:**_ The Change._

-x-

"_Are you sure you'll be alright?"_

The statement made her want to roll her eyes, though she refrained from doing so. Her lightly tanned face was blank as she stared at the other impassively, telling him exactly what she thought of his unneeded worrying. He sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair and messing it up. She raised a eyebrow at him, wondering when exactly he had decided to take on such 'undignified' mannerisms. Probably when he found out Voldemort didn't take kindly to betrayal and was after his life, she mused silently, as she stared at the blonde in front of her with a blank expression.

"_Are you sure you have everything? Shrunken library, wardrobe, and that refralligator contraption?" _

He asked, his voice calm though the worry shining in his unusual silver eyes made her look at him in mild annoyance. Not that she wasn't use to his odd ways, but she had no need for such things at the moment.

"_Refrigerator."_

She absently corrected, ignoring his indigent huffing and rant of all things muggle. She herself was not that crazy over the thought of going to live with non-magic humans, but her reasons were a bit different on the 'why'. She knew her companion had some weird sort of hate towards the muggle kind, though she had quickly beaten it into him that not all were necessarily bad, just easily susceptible to manipulation; just as all humans or any other creature with feelings were. He had grudgingly agreed with her reasoning, though he had yet to get over all of his dislike of their kind. He was raised as such, after-all.

"_Draco."_

She said simply, breaking him from his ranting. He gave her a mildly embarrassed look before coughing slightly and regaining his bearings.

"_Right. Well, as I said, are you sure about this? There might be other options."_

He asked, eyes silently asking for a change in heart but looking a bit defeated at her mild glare.

"_There are no other options."_

She said simply, ignoring his mutterings, and grabbed the bottle from his hands quickly. Before he tried to convince her otherwise, she downed the murky purple potion, showing no signs of disgust as it ran down her throat. However she did grunt ever-so slightly as braking sound echoed in the silence of the room, her body changing to that of a smaller version of her previously seventeen-year old self.

She heard Draco sigh in mild annoyance, but it was tinged with relief. Perhaps he thought his own potion wouldn't have worked? She mused idly.

Stepping out of her now large clothes, she ignored the embarrassed sound her blonde companion let out. With a wave of her hand they had shrunk to her size and she shot the blonde a look that he simply sighed softly at.

He handed her a small onyx box, silver etched into an intricate snake design on the front. She took it without a word, placing it into an equally black messenger bag as she slung it over her shoulder effortlessly.

She turned without a word and began walking to the door when she was stopped by a hand not her own. She turned a bit, glancing up at Draco from the corner of her eye as he gazed at her.

"_Be careful."_

He stated softly, kneeling down and brushing a kiss to her forehead right above her brow. He caressed her scar, looking at her face for a moment before sighing again.

"_I'm sorry, Harelda."_

It was soft, almost too soft to be heard. But her war-trained ears heard it enough, and she glared at him with surprising anger, though it seemed the blonde was unaffected- only getting a bit sadder.

"_Stop apologizing; you wear the color green not Gryffindor red."_

She mocked a bit, watching as his features twisted into an unsavory expression. She smirked as she shrugged off his hand, looking at him from the corner of her acid green eyes as she touched the door with her hand.

"_I will try."_

She stated simply, answering his question of her safety. When he gave a short laugh, ignoring the sadness within the sound, she opened the door and walked out of the house, making her way outside. She eyed the car in front of the muggle house Draco had gotten and nodded to the driver. Ignoring the nasty grunt directed toward her, she simply settled herself in the backseat, dismissing the man.

Looking out of the window she absently noted that the sun was just barely rising into the sky, the area tinged with various shades of pinks and reds. She hummed a bit, eyeing the people and buildings around her instead.

She glanced down when she heard a soft purring, eyeing her bag with a look of indifference as it seemed to wiggle around a bit. Suddenly a black fur ball popped out of the bag, the creature sneezing a bit as it blinked, looking up at its owner with bright yellow eyes. It meowed a bit and she simply lifted it unto her shoulder, petting it lightly with the pads of her fingers as she continued to stare out into the window.

Today, she was Harelda Potter; tomorrow she would be Igarashi Hitomi, emancipated orphan child with superior intelligence and twelve years of age.

She sighed slightly, eyes glazed a bit in thought as she stared at her surroundings. She hummed a bit, stroking her familiar's face with her finger.

"Everything is about to change, Midnight." She informed the cat, watching from the corner of her eyes as the animal simply stretched gracefully, her sleek onyx body going to rest around her shoulder and upper arm comfortably. Yellow eyes met jade and a glint appeared in both as they turned to look outside the window.

"I think things are about to get interesting, Midnight." She said simply, never faltering in her caresses.

A simple meow was her answer.

-x-

**A/N:** _Hitomi means the pupil of the eye. In Japan it is typically given to those who have beautiful eyes, hence the reason why Harelda got it._

_Oh, and Harelda is one of the female versions of Harry, though this one means strong in war, or commander in war. I thought it was fitting for her._

_Some major questions and such will be answered next chapter._

_Review with thoughts and questions and what not._


	2. Chapter 2: A New World

-x-

**Story Title: **_Learning To Live._

**Warnings:** **G**_**ender-bender (Fem!Harry),**__ strong violence, gore, past abuse (physical and sexual) ,use of alcohol (underage) and cigarettes (underage), language, possible adult situations, Slytherin!Harry, strong!Harry, Very good tennis playing!Harry, and mild bashing of both light and dark sides._

**Story Rating:**_ Somewhere between T and M; may change to fully M._

**Chapter Rating:**_ T._

**Chapter Title:**_ New People, New Life, And A New World._

**Words:**_ 7,695_

**Pages:**_ 14_

**Last Time:**_ "I think things are about to get interesting, Midnight." She said simply, never faltering in her caresses. A simple meow was her answer._

-x-

**[January 5th, Location: Undetermined.]**

The flow of her thoughts were numerous in number and fast in speed as she gazed outside the window of the fast moving car she was currently in.

Thinking back, she hadn't been the one to suggest the move, yet she was the one most unaffected by it- at least on an emotional base. Draco had been reluctant and hesitant, but she had seen the desperation he was harboring that had dragged him to the point of relaying his plan to her. It hadn't really bothered her, as the plan seemed to have been thoroughly thought out by the blonde and the reasons for the move were big enough and sound enough to make her agree.

_**{ Flashback Start. [Four Months Prior; September 3**__**rd**__**, Location: Unknown.] }**_

_It was very quiet in the dully light room._

_Soft, steady breathing was the only thing to be heard; the lightest tapping of the old tree branches against shade-drawn windows of their forth hideout house. She was aware of the blonde's slightly hesitant steps that barely echoed in the otherwise silent room. The teen had been acting a bit strangely- even given the current circumstances- and she had simply waited patiently for the other to come to her with his thoughts._

_She heard him sit a few feet behind her, his movements soft but not unheard by her war-trained ears. Judging by the sounds his clothes was emitting it seemed as if he had taken to her meditating pose, consisting of her sitting with folded legs over each other. There was a long moment of silence, her form never moving and his fidgeting increasing ever so slightly as they simply sat in the silent room. The moment was simply not meant to last however; and Harelda knew this to start with._

"_Harelda…" Draco spoke softly, moving a bit closer to her form._

"_Hn." Was her response, an invite in continuing with what he wanted to say. He hesitated, the few moments of silence almost defining._

"_I have been thinking lately…" he hesitated, before picking up again._

"_This has been our four safe house in three months Harelda. With the rate were running, and the rate their finding us one of us are going to screw up sooner or later!" he was slightly breathless as he finished, seemingly not at all done with what he wished to say to her still closed-eyes form._

"_This is all because of my betrayal… they had already known of their inevitable defeat but loyalty was never supposed to be broken. We- the death-eaters- were all to fall with our shell of a Lord, and fall with each other- finally free from his clutches and the shadows placed upon us form the light. It was planned really, however unspoken. Yet I betrayed them, and in doing so made them hate me."_

_He laughed here, the sound cold and harsh to her ears making herself feel the tiniest bit of uneasiness over the almost crazed sound. Had the blonde succumbed to the darkness already?_

"_I had known I would warrant their hatred, but never so fiercely. When you killed Voldemort, I had thought they would simply all die in the fight against the light since Voldemort seemed keen on letting his pawns die before he had even bothered to step into the war-zone. Naïve, wasn't I? Believing-_hoping_- that they would all die. Of course they wouldn't all die! Of course some would escape; their pride would never allow them something such as a suicide or pathetic attempt at throwing themselves at the nearest light wizard during a battle-even if they had all planned to die. How could I have thought suck a thing?" he ranted, breathing becoming harsher before she decide to end it._

"_Draco." She said sharply, shocking the blonde out of his rant. He breathed deeply, composing himself for a moment before inching closer to her still unmoving form, before speaking once again._

"_I was foolish- but I know that now. But that's not the point. The point is that even though you were the one to kill their 'Lord' they are not after you. After-all, death is acceptable as it was a war, but betrayal? Never." After this he sighed, closing the gap between the two as he pulled her back into his chest, his arms coming to encircle her still form loosely._

"_I can't lose you. It's my fault that their after us, I'm putting you in danger. I can't lose you Harelda; I can't." He whispered harshly, his arms tightening. There was a moment of silence before Harelda sighed softly, still never opening her eyes as she spoke._

"_And what do you propose we do, Draco? Fight them?" she questioned him softly. He shook his head in a negative._

"_Even months after the battle your body and magic are still healing- your use of it has decreased greatly. You had extreme magical exhaustion, Harelda. Even though you have gained more than what you were able to right after the fight with Voldemort we are still at a great disadvantage. No, we cannot fight them with such odds like that pitted against us."_

_She hummed thoughtfully for a moment before responding._

"_Then what do you suggest we do Draco." This made him hold her tighter, his head coming to rest on her shoulder as he spoke in a low tone._

"_Not us, you. It's me there're after, if you go hide by yourself perhaps in the muggle world… then perhaps you will be safe."_

_Harelda sighed._

_She knew he was going to suggest such a thing. Wasn't she supposed to have the stupid 'saving people thing' she mused to herself idly._

_If she was to go along with this little plan of his, she would have to try to convert herself into a muggle. She would have to use very little magic, only simply spells with a wand or wand-less magic. Well, that wasn't really much of a problem considering how little she was able to access- even with her wand- at the moment. She would have to integrate herself carefully, probably enter a school and take up a hobby that would gradually give her a name. Important certificates such as a birth certificate and such were of no problem to her and Draco, considering the work she had convinced the ministry to do._

_When the problem of people dying- possibly in muggle territory- became evident she found that it would be a very big problem if they found the dead body of the wizard/witch. Not only would they never be able to identify the person, but they wouldn't have any records or anything to suggest the person ever existed. It was dangerous, and if muggle founds dozens bodies with the same circumstances, all dead from unknown things, and wearing odd clothing they would soon catch onto the wizard-ing community._

_So they all had established themselves in the muggle world, however slightly. Mostly through powerful and wealthy business, pureblood wizards hiring other wizards and witches to make it seem as if they all had had an established life in the muggle world to begin with forged papers and hacked databases that inserted everyone's chosen information. _

_So she was fine on that part; all she had to do was legally change her name (again) and keep everything else the same except the age and date of birth. Because her parents died before anything ever was established, they never existed so they had her parents down as unknowns and she had grown up in a muggle orphanage. It was a simple and an easy excuse for the lack of information on her birth and background._

_It really wouldn't be much work, just moving everything she thought essential and integrating herself into the muggle world would be the only thing that would take effort._

_Of the bad side, she would be leaving Draco alone. The blonde was quite skilled with magic, and knew only the barest hints of wandless magic that she had taught him, but he wasn't nearly as powerful magically as herself. He had the advantage of his large, strong form but that didn't do much against the unforgivables or slicing hexes. She wouldn't admit it readily, but she was worried for the teen. If she left, instead of making it better for him it would only make it worst. He would be alone constantly, running and fighting the last of the death eaters that would like nothing more than to slice him to bits. It was unsettling, thinking of what she was leaving and how she was leaving it, and she wasn't entirely sure she was fine with simply leaving the other._

"_I know what you're thinking." The blonde interrupted her thought process, and she looked at him sharply. He gave a small, sheepish smile but didn't back down from his observation, holding her tightly._

"_Don't worry about me, Harelda. I can take care of myself. I've been training hard and have even developed some of my own spells, and of course I have been keeping up with those muggle martial arts; however unwillingly." He added, lips twisting a bit at the end much to her amusement. She nodded, understanding what he was saying but not fully ready to cave into his demands._

"_You will be alone." She warned him, opening her eyes now and glancing at him over her shoulder with a glowing gaze. He sighed, resting his head on her shoulder once more._

"_I know. I'm not really going to like that part much, but ill get over it. We can send each other letters if were careful, but only maybe once a every few weeks; at most. It doesn't really matter, as long as your safe." He stated, looking at her carefully. She shifted a bit, turning in his embrace to face his chest and looking up a bit at him, eyes narrowed but thoughtful. He sighed, knowing that just because he wanted it wasn't enough of a reason for her to agree._

"_It's not just me, Harelda. You can't die. If you do, it would be a big hit to the light side. You're a national figure now; if you die there is a chance that the dark will raise once again and then what? Dumbledore is dead and there isn't anyone nearing your level of expertise in magic- at least none of them are alive. If you die it's over."_

'_..And if I die, it's just another life…' was the unspoken part that had her narrowing her eyes dangerously, making him sweat a bit but hold firm._

_She sighed, knowing he was serious and stubborn. He wasn't going to back down. She knew very well the consequences of her death would bring; not that she cared too much. She was on the 'light side' only on the battle ground; in magic she was more neutral than anything. And Draco himself was dark oriented, dark magic working better with his core and light spells being significantly weaker than if he casted the dark counterpart. They were both aware of the unsettles and still tense atmosphere for the magical world of Britain, and what would happen if they lost another influential and magically strong poster figure. The 'dark' would have something to work with, and that was unacceptable. _

_With a sigh, she nodded her head curtly making him smile. It was sad, and she gave him a sad look in return. They spent the rest of the night like, in each other's embrace and immersed in their own thoughts- mentally preparing themselves for the months to come…_

_{Flashback End.}_

A sharp tug forward had her snapping out of her memories, and she glaried at the taxi driver in an annoyed fashion because of the abrupt stop. He ignored her look, and simply continued to smoke his cigar, his lips thin andlifted into what he porbably thought was a good looking smirk. It only succeeded in making him even more horrid than before. Taking a deep pull from the stick in his mouth, he blew the smoke out, the wispy grayness of it curling around his tanned , greasy face. His eyes followed her form as she left the cad silently, and handed over the money. The man took it quickly and she turned on her heal to leave when he grabbed her wrist.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as he eyed her with his watery eyes, the orbs taking in her form and his lips pulling into a disgusting leer.

"Why all alone, little girl?"

She gave him an unimpressed look and proceeded to crush his hand.

Ignoring his loud yells, she simply went on her way, her sleek cat at her heals. She glanced back to observe the scene as people started eyeing the screaming driver with a bit of fear and trepidation. Ah, perhaps the man would be charge with alcohol consumption or maybe even use of drugs? Or perhaps he would be labled insane? After-all, a little girl couldn't have broken his hand. His actions would certainly not help his case, either.

Suddenly a bit more happier than earlier, she proceeded down the sidewalk, eyeing the large wide building spanning across a large amount of space with a cool eye.

-x-

It was easy enough to navigate herself through the endless crowds of people in the airport.

She idly wondered why so many muggles found difficulty in such a trivial and mapped out thing. _There were signs, were there not? _Sighing to herself, Harelda (_or perhaps Hitomi now_, she thought in a bemused fashion)weaved in and out of the crowded people, watching in amusement as the countless muggles continued to fret and worry over getting to their correct terminals on time.

She giggled to herself, half horrified and half uncaring over the uncharacteristic gesture she found herself indulging in. These people were so carefree, so absolutely naïve to the horrors of the world- theirs and her own- that it made her want to laugh. It had never really bothered her before, but somehow watching these people made her mad. After so many lives were lost, after so much bloodshed- there was no sign of it among these people.

She sighed a bit, running her hand through her black hair. _Oh stop it_, she chided herself lightly, annoyed with her sudden mood swings. She knew that these people didn't know because they were not allowed to know.

'_Ignorance is bliss'… was it?_ She thought as she made her way to a desk and allowed the fake blonde behind the counter to get her passport. She idly waited, raising an eyebrow when the woman lowered the small booklet to peer at her from above the edge. The woman immediately lifted it again when her cold jade eyes focused on her and sighed, typing at her computer as she printed out the necessary forms and tickets for her flight and what not.

Hitomi ignored the woman as she lazily swept the area around herself with an acid green gaze.

Her attention was immediately captured as she heard light hearted laughter. Shifting away from the woman at the desk slightly, eyeing the family sitting among the chairs waiting at their terminal. The mother was a small little thing, pretty in a natural way. With shoulder length brown hair, sparkling brown eyes, and a bell-like laugh- she made a beautiful vision of a younger mother happy with her life. There was no hardened look in her eyes, or tense muscles. There were no sad gazes as she glanced at her children, as if there was one missing.

The man beside her was smiling a goofy little smile, lopsided and true. He had short cut blonde hair, and dark blue eyes. He made a beautiful picture of a father that was happy and in love with his wife. There were no grizzly scars marring his face. There were no emotionless masks set upon his face, or indifferent gazes toward his happy wife.

Her own jade eyes softened a bit, watching as they cooed over a small bubbly child held in their joined hands.

They were unaffected, and they were happy. Suddenly, she felt extremely uncomfortable, an urge to fidget making itself present but the need was ignored.

Hitomi wasn't just moving a long ways, she was moving to a whole new world, and she suddenly wondered if she was going to be able to adjust.

Sighing softly, she shook her head as she turned to grab the papers from the annoyed fake blonde. Apparently the lady had been calling her for a bit, but she ignored the looks she was shooting her in favor of taking the tickets and spinning on her heal. She easily made her way around the crowds, maneuvering herself in a way that would affect no attention to herself. For once, she was glad for her short stature (even if it was unnatural), since it gave her just enough room to pass by the older muggles.

"What do you _mean_ that Ore-sama cannot bring this?"

She titled her head a bit, suddenly interested in the teen that had spoken (screamed was more like it, really.)

He had a bit of an accented silky voice, and by his appearance and way of speaking he was most likely from an Asian country. He had an odd color of hair, she observed idly. It was a lighter shade of black, blue-ish gray tones shining when the artificial light hit the styled tresses. He had quite a bit of money, if his outfit was anything to go by, but he seemed a bit (or extremely) outraged and was yelling at the security guard. She was very amused by the guards nervous fidgeting, his voice coming out in stutters as he regarded the wealthy teen.

She sighed, annoyed with herself as she found her body moving of its own accord toward the teen and the distressed older man. Her 'saving people thing' seemed to refer to more passive ways as well, unfortunately.

"It's unfortunate, however it is the rules of the airport." She stated simply, walking closer. She glanced to the side, making sure her cat companion was well hidden in the shadows on the walls before turning back to the teen. The teen heard her and he spun, angry eyes trained on her form.

"Ore-sama does not care about that! All Ore-sama cares about is bringing home this bottle of perfume!" he exclaimed, rounding on the guard and glaring at the man rather impressively. She raised an onyx eyebrow elegantly, despite her apparent age.

"Is that so?" she drawled, ignoring the young man for now and walking up to the guard. Her eyes grew large and a bit misty as she stared at him, head tilted.

"Mister, I'm sorry but my brother needs to bring it home to Mother! It's what she has wanted for so long, and after what she did for me it's the least we could do." she exclaimed, watching in secreted amusement as the guards eyes grew soft.

"What did she do, little girl?"

"She- she adopted me! Oh please mister?" she asked softly, eyeing the guard threw her long black eyelashes. When his gaze softened further she threw a secretive smirk to the loose jawed teen. The adoption story was the easiest of all excuses, since it explained the lack of information on her papers, her reason for traveling alone to a very distant country, her very small amount of items, her obviously Japanese name even though she was clearly not Asian, and a different last name than whatever the other teens was. A perfect story, really.

"Oh, alright. But don't tell anyone about this, okay?"

She nodded her head enthusiastically as he whispered the words to her. Sighing, he let them through the scanners. Carefully, so that neither noticed her actions she glanced at the hiding onyx cat. Nodding to her ever so slightly, the cat seemed to smirk before suddenly gliding into the shadows. As if nothing had ever happened, she idly reclaimed her things, eyeing the snake box with a new light. Everything she needed really was inside it, shrunken and ready to be enlarged once she had gotten to her new house. But the snake design was made with a steady flow of magic, making the muggle scanners only see a simple jewelry box with only one ring inside of it.

Gathering her things quickly, she watched as the other teen quickly followed, jogging up to her fast moving form as they made their way down the make-shift stairs and hallway that lead to their plane. As soon as they passed into the small gate that allowed them inside, her face was blank with lack of emotion, her past childish expressions gone from view.

She ignored his presence, not at all interested in the boy anymore as she walked swiftly.

"Hmm… Ore-sama is impressed little girl. And whom does Ore-sama grace with his presence?" he asked, eyeing her from the corner of his eyes as he flipped his hair. They stepped into the plane, the teen stepping over the gap of space between the stairs and the plane easily and without glance. She raised an eyebrow, suddenly a bit interest in the teen that seemed to have good reflexes and senses. She wondered what it was the teen did to get those kinds of reflexes.

She eyed him for a moment, before answering in a bland tone.

"You may call me Hitomi."

-x-

Four and a half hours later, Hitomi was very regretful for ever talking to this teen at all.

The teen, who had finally introduced himself said was Atobe, or Keigo- whichever- was insufferable and she wanted to kill him in the most painful way at the moment. Now, Hitomi was usually very calm, never reacting to much of anything- but this teen was so loud and talkative that her eye had developed a permanent twitch. Usually she could have just blocked the teen out, which was something she was rather good at. And while she was getting used to his incessant talking, he had animated hand gestures to go with everything so it made it very hard.

He just continued to talk, whether or not she had even answered a thrown question or acknowledge anything he had said at all! He loved to rant most of all, unfortunately.

Unfortunately (for her) his private jet had some problems and was under some work, and he was unable to take it to get what he wanted (apparently, the damned bottle of perfume really _was _for his mother.) And even though they were on a first class plane, the most expensive out of them all (Draco had not let her take anything else) he was still _complaining._

The plane was almost completely empty other than about six other people, and was split into private sections every couple of rows of seats. And this … _thing_ had decided that she was worthy of his presence so he had sat next to her.

Yay.

For the past hour (because she lost whatever sanity she had then) she had been throwing threats at him left and right, but the muggle seemed to not understand what she was saying, and only heard what he wanted.

"I'm going to kill you if you don't shut up."

"Eh? Is Ore-sama's voice is too beautiful for you? Well Ore-sama will continue to indulge you in the magnificent sound!"

"I have a knife I snuck onto the plane. I _will _stab you to death."

"Eh? You have snuck something onto the plane? Ore-sama is impressed by your guts, that are almost as amazing as Ore-sama's, little girl!"

"I will _shoot_ you. Seriously. Shut. Up."

"Eh? Ore-sama is too amazing, beautiful, and talented to be in your presence? Well, Ore-sama is most humble and great. Be amazed by Ore-sama's—erk!"

… Could you really blame her for hitting him? Yeah, she didn't think so.

Well, not everything was entirely bad however.

The teen was a loud, obnoxious person, but he provided a great amount of information. Upon discovering she was equally influential and wealthy as himself, he had demanded that they do business together- which she found no fault in. She would need more contacts in Japan anyway. He had explained that he went to a school named Hyotei, and that it was the best there was (she wondered about that.)

She found out about tennis, the sport that had given him the reflexes he had and it had immediately interested her. Apparently, the place where she was relocating was very big on the tennis thing, though not so much for girls. She didn't really care either way since it seemed as if tennis was the most logical thing she could make a name for herself in. She had already played tennis before, however little, during her early school days. The school had liked giving the children that as a sport for gym, and she had found she liked it as well.

It would also explain her near perfect reflexes, enhanced hearing and eyesight as well- although it might be less believable with the fact that she had only just began to play… she shrugged mentally, deciding that she would come to the problem when it came.

Deciding that she was going to train as fast as possible, she easily tuned out the other teen as she thought of her plans for the next few months before school started.

Many hours later, they had landed, and they both left in their separate cars driven by their own drivers (Draco's doing for her own, of course.) They had given each other their numbers before departing; however, to start business negotiations on a later date.

-x-

Hitomi never really took great care in her appearance, despite her friendship in one Draco Malfoy.

Quite surprising given the fact the teen was absolutely crazy over his appearances, always going on about his Malfoy pride and what-not. It didn't really matter to her, but she could see its usefulness in some situations.

She hummed a bit as she absently brushed her wavy black hair. Though not really caring much about appearances, she had been slightly frustrated with the state of her hair, cursing her father's genes for giving her such a thing. So in order to tame it, however slightly, she had grown it out. Its previous waist-length shorted to just below her shoulders, and she ruffled it a bit, satisfied with its length. She carefully added a few swept eye bangs, successfully making herself appear a bit more Asian than before.

Pulling the dark locks into a short ponytail at the nape of her neck, she pushed stray locks of onyx hair behind her many earring-clad ears. She had gotten them pierced long ago, finding many advantages in the muggle fad. Each jade stud had a small rune carved into it, each modified to inform her of hidden enemies, illegal port keys, undetected apparitions, veiled wizards, certain magical creatures, etc.

She fingered her left ear briefly, the first piercing the only dangling one out of them all. It was a small dagger, hanging delicately off a simple silver chain that looped into her ear and held in place at the back. She withheld a smirk at that one, enjoying this particular one more so than the others. Only a small spark of her magic and the small dagger would become a larger one, ready for use. Though, she mused silently, she was in the muggle world now… she didn't really need it.

She sighed softly, glancing at herself in the large mirror, the sides fogged from the shower she had stepped out only moments ago.

She was still small, but she really didn't care about her height much having long gotten used to her abnormal height. Her body was slightly tanned, face expressionless and eyes a harden jade. Her acid eyes slowly took in the many scars adorning her body, noting each with an odd sense of relief.

None had disappeared from her transformation, and she somehow took comfort in that fact.

While many would cringe at such horrid things on their bodies, she only gazed at them with old indifference, and an odd sense of softness. It was the only thing she could rely on really; her scars. Never changing, always there, and always reminding her of how she got where she was. It reminded her of her hard life and what she went through. It remained her of the lives lost- by both herself and both sides of the war.

She was never particularly angry with the dark side and Voldemort; not really. He had murdered her parents- people she never knew. While she respected the small fragments of memories she had of them, she didn't really love them- how can you love someone you never really had a chance to know?

No, she couldn't blame the rather insane man for doing such a thing.

War was something that came with casualties- it was a fact of every war; magical or muggle. She couldn't blame the dark side because they were simply fighting for their own side- for something they believed in, just as she was. Though she wasn't particularly fighting for the light, she did agree with the need for Voldemort to be dead.

The man was powerful and ambitious, and while those traits weren't particularly bad, when mixed with insanity they resulted with the chaos Magical Brittan had been reduced to. Though she truly did blame the wizarding community itself for its own problems, it would be a bigger problem in itself to let Voldemort parade around Magical Britain looking for her and killing randomly. She didn't need that kind of baggage.

She slipped on a pair of plain underwear, baggy sweatpants following right after. Pulling them on, she fastened them at her waist tightly, before reaching over and grabbing the white bandages. She unrolled them carefully, glancing at them briefly before wrapping her chest with a practiced ease. It was something she discovered had helped her a great deal when fighting, or doing anything physical really. Though she wasn't crazily big, she had a good size with a modest B-cup. Though now, at twelve years old she went down, but they still seemed a bit big for her age.

Sighing, she wrapped them tightly, knotting them at the side of her upper torso so that the knot wouldn't hinder any of her movements. She briefly glanced back into the mirror, her eyes catching a glint of silver. Stopping her movement, she carefully took her thin-framed glasses off and raised a finger to the small unusual piercing right beside a bit under her right eye. Pushing some magic into it, she gazed into the mirror and watched as the reflection slowly began to clear. Satisfied with her newly improved vision, she slipped on a plain large white t-shirt and left the bathroom, heading down the hall. She easily ignoring the sound of her feet padding along the cold wooden floors, the sound breaking the defening silence of her new home. Humming a bit, her mind wandered to the reasons for the unusal piercing.

The small piercing was unusual even for muggles, but it had served its purpose well. It was the only thing she could think of that was close enough to her eyes that she could lace with a semi-permanent eye fixing spell. Glasses would only be a liability for her if she were to fight with them so she was practically never seen with glasses. She never did fix her eyes permanently, and for good reason as well. If she needed, she could quickly slip on a pair of glasses and she could look like a totally different person with them if she made herself to be. It was very useful during the hiding period she and Draco went through.

As she grabbed her black hat and pulled it on over her eyes, she sighed in irritation. Why was she remembering such useless things now- when she had all the time in the world to start a new life? No, she wouldn't be like the countless of other people who still lived in the war in their minds, and took the easy way out. She tightened her grip on the cap before forcing herself to let go and search for a simple bag.

When the war had ended there were only two options for the magical people of Britain. They could either forget everything that had happened and act as if it was all a dream, or they could live in the past- in the war- and simply go insane from the violent memories they replayed in their minds. There had been so many people that had taken their lives- mostly aurors. They had seen horrible things, but she still hated them- every last one.

How could these people say things like that? Say that they had seen horrible things when they had only skimmed the surface? That they had seen death when they only saw ones induced by the killing curse? The killing curse gave an instant death, torture was a prolonged, drawn out, and vicious death. Breaking a person down to insanity and pushing them so far over the edge they are unable to distinguish the pleasure from pain. Everything was just one blurred line, never ending and immortal.

No, these people had seen nothing. But she did. She saw everything- she was part of it. She had been captured a total of three times by death eaters during the war- not something she was very proud of but it happened none the less. They had enjoyed her screams, her tears, her blood…

Shaking her head almost violently, she ripped herself from her own thoughts. No, she was starting over not drowning herself in the past. Sighing lightly, she grabbed a simple gym bag and slung it over her shoulder, grabbing a clear water bottle and a towel on the way to the door. Ripping it open she hummed as wind hit her face. Glancing around, she set off, starting at a slow jog then taking off in a sprint, and changing again after a little while.

She had always been like this, after the war her restlessness just getting worse. She had taught herself to meditate and that did its job rather wonderfully, and she could keep still if she wanted to, but she still felt uneasy if she wasn't doing some. It was something that had gotten worse during the war, and she had found herself training to near death even after fighting in a particularly hard battle. It didn't matter to her really; she just needed to do something. She needed to get the feeling of wasting time, of feeling as if she wasn't strong enough away. She hated weakness, and she hated that people thought that she was weak because of her sex. Not that she hated being a girl- she was rather neutral on the subject really- and she wasn't really all for females to a crazy level, she just didn't like to be underestimated. Sighing, she pushed her wandering thoughts to the side in order to glance around with a rather blank expression etched onto her tanned face.

She observed her surrounds carefully, hoping to find some food stores and maybe even sports stores that she could go to. Keeping an eye out, she easily found some interesting stores, including a tea shop that she was eager to try out.

She sighed, closing her eyes momentarily as a gentle breeze pasted by her cheeks and made the stray pieces of hair outlining her face flutter. It was a bit cold, having just gotten over the winter months. She loved cold weather to be honest, and she was ever so annoyed at anything remotely hot. Draco had often made fun of her for it, because of her rather unattractive habit of simply sleeping when anything got too hot.

A ghost of a smile graced her lips as she suddenly sprinted, her breathing even as she watched her surroundings in an almost blurred and hazed way.

The people were moving about their business, mothers and their children gathering groceries, and children playing along the road and at the nearest grassy patch of land. Birds, who had only recently returned to their home after the snow receded, were chirping, adding to the music of everyday life. There were workers greeting the customers and customers greeting the workers, teenagers being themselves; loud, laughing and joking. It all seemed too good to be true, to be honest. How could everything be so carefree? Was such a thing possible? Apparently it was, but she wondered if she would ever be able to conform to the normalness of it all.

Probably not.

Evening her breathing and taking a deep breath, she slowed to a steady jog. Breathing deeply, she past a particularly dark alleyway, the natural shadows the sun was casting making it seem all the more ominous. Acid green eyes narrowed as she eyed a group of delinquents getting their kicks off of messing around with some kid. Her eyes narrowed further, slowing down a bit more as she observed them, dozens of thoughts penetrating her mind.

Should she help? Should she do anything, or just walk away? Would it be smart to really put any kind of attention to herself?

She almost groaned at herself, knowing that no matter how Slytherin she was inside- she still had a bit of a 'saving people thing'. It annoyed her endlessly.

Changing course, she neared them at a steady walk, careful to blend into the shadows and make herself silent as she neared closer to their forms. Her eyes quickly sharpened as she eyed the possible actions she could take, and searching for any possibly concealed or held weapons. The leading teen seemed to have a rather large knife hidden under her shirt, the barest outline of the bulky handle showing for only a moment as the teen moved. She waited patiently for an opening, watching with an unblinking gaze as the teens continued to taunt and anger the other teen.

She eyed the teen for a moment, eyes taking in the older boys (well younger, but now older because of her form..?) he had messy, wild black hair that stuck up in every direction yet didn't look unclean in any way. He had large brown, almost hazel eyes that were narrowed dangerously on his attackers. He seemed to be trying to hold himself back, though his stance was a bit arrogant and his glare given from a downwards glance as his hands clenched inside the pockets of his pants. His height added to the look, his form tall and his build lean but filled out with muscle.

Ignoring the teen for the moment, she immediately found an opening and sprinted at top speed. She found herself right in front of the black-haired teen, the attacker obviously frustrated with his progress. He had drawn the knife and was about to swipe it across the teen, when she had interfered.

Leaning forward and bending her body, she narrowed her gaze as she leaned to the side, watching as the hand holding the knife swept right past her form. Quickly grabbing the offending hand, she quickly pressed at the wrist and held the outside part of his elbow. Pushing roughly she watched with a blank expression as the teen yelped and dropped the knife, falling to his knees as she bent the arm back further. Shoving her foot on his back she made him bend forward closer to the pavement, staring at the other two teens that were watching with wide eyes as their leader was taken down by a rather small boy… girl?

"You know… it's rude to try to stab someone. The blood could get the road rather dirty don't you think? Besides, blood is a bitch to get out of clothes." she said blankly, pushing on the elbow joint a bit more and watching in silent satisfaction as the bones wined at the moment, her prey whimpering in pain. The other teens quickly snapped out of their gaze, glaring at her. They quickly backed down as she gave her own, a far cry from her earlier blank expression. They quickly scampered away, and pushing their leader toward the retreating teens, she watched emotionless as they ran before turning to the other teen.

He was watching her with wide, shocked eyes, but what made her raise her eyebrow were the completely crimson eyes she gazed into. The whites of his eyes were stained red, his appearance ruffled but still shocked. He blinked when she simply looked at him blankly, silence reining in the alleyway a bit awkwardly before he coughed. She simply stared before turning on her heal and walking away, paying the teen no mind as she simply walked away.

She ignored his shouts and simply jogged the steady pace quickly switching to a sprint that she held for a good hour. Breathing raggedly, she sighed, running a hand over and down her head, making a few more pieces of hair escape as she did so.

Today was really not her day, she thought a bit irritated as she turned and headed to her new home, black clouds hovering above her form and slowly letting loose its contents on her and soaking her form.

She sighed again, ignoring the precipitation and continued jogging home.

-x-

**Timeline:**

The Final Battle: May 2nd.

May 8th- December 17th: Draco and Harelda's Hiding time. During this time they went from secret house to secret house to hide from the left over death eaters. These locations are not limited to Britain; locations include The United States, France, Japan, and Germany.

January 5TH: Harelda finally leaves to head to the airport that will bring her to Japan. (She has already been there, but Draco and she agree that the death eaters will not expecting her to go to a place she has already been and will most likely look over Europe before anywhere.)

School Starts: April 6th, and the school is not limited to Seigaku. She could anywhere, so it's up to you for next chapter.

Harelda's Birthday: June 31st.

-x-

**A/N:** I apologize for the rather boring chapter, and the slow update. My uncle, unfortunately, has lost his long battle against cancer and has died. Next chapter will be much more interesting. Thank you for all reviews, they made me write even after coming home from watching my uncle burned to ashes. (Sorry for the morbid view, I'm feeling particularly dark today.)

Review please?


	3. Chapter 3:Training And A Lesson In Power

-x-

_**A/N: **I apologize for any possible and most likely probable mistakes. I had no time to go over the chapter, but I will do so when I have time. I am sorry for the possible annoyance, but I will fix them soon. Thank you and enjoy._

-x-

**Story Title: **_Learning To Live._

**Warnings:** **G**_**ender-bender (Fem!Harry),**__ strong violence, gore, past abuse (physical and sexual) ,use of alcohol (underage) and cigarettes (underage), language, possible adult situations, Slytherin!Harry, strong!Harry, Very good tennis playing!Harry, and mild bashing of both light and dark sides._

**Story Rating:**_ Somewhere between T and M; may change to fully M._

**Chapter Rating:**_ T._

**Chapter Title:**_ Training, Settling In, And A Lesson In Power. _

**Words:**_ 8,419_

**Pages:**_ 17_

**Last Time:** "_She sighed again, ignoring the precipitation and continued jogging home."_

-x-

**[January 16****th**** (11 days later); 6:32 a.m]**

"What the hell was that, ah?"

Skillfully ignoring the harsh statement, she simply ran to the other side of the court, tensing her muscles as she brought the racket up in a graceful arch and hit the ball dead center of her racquet in one fluid movement.

She watched with a blank expression as it was hit back with ease by the now smirking man on the other side of the court. Running forward in a quick sprint, she brought her racquet in front of her as she brought it up and hit the ball high in the air. She watched with narrowed eyes as the man cursed a bit; back pedaling and bending his body backward with surprising flexibility. Hitting the ball with great force it hit the cement next to her foot, spinning and digging into the ground hard enough to make a mark.

She assessed the position of her body and the position of the ball quickly, taking a quick step back and twisting her body. She breathed out slowly, watching as the ball shot forward in an odd angle toward her fast moving body. Time seemed to slow down greatly as she brought the racquet forward, twisting it as she twisted her own body and hitting it back sharply. She watched as it shot forward, hitting the ground and staying low as it passed the man's feet. He made an odd grunting sound, placing his racquet on his shoulder as he assessed her with narrowed eyes.

She was breathing easily, despite the fact she had been practicing for two hours already. Onyx hair was held back in a low ponytail, smaller pieces framing her tanned face and in slight disarray. Her eyes held the same cold tone they did when he had first met her; her face still blank of any and all possible emotion. He sighed, walking off the court and motioning her to follow him. She did so without a word, gathering her water bottle and small towel before seating herself next to his stretched out form. She watched him out of the corner of her eyes, taking in the thoughtful look that seemed to take over his rather pale face. He sighed a bit, letting out a breathy chuckle as he ran a hand through his hair and down his lightly stubble face, shaking his head in amazement.

"You're getting better and better at an incredible rate. I have taught you all I can; it seemed you will have to search for another teacher kid."

The girl said nothing, only nodding to show him that she understood. Gathering her things, she left the court. The man watched her disappear away from the courts and down the road. He shook his head, pulling out his phone in a quick movement; fingers moving rapidly as they dialed.

"That girl is a monster." He mumbled to himself, waiting for the beeping to stop on the other end of the phone while he paced. When a muffled greeting was heard over the phone his lips thinned a bit, parted slightly letting his gleaming teeth show from over his lip. His eyes glinted in the sunlight as the ball of gas slipped through a group of wispy clouds, shadowing his face ever so briefly.

"Eh? No it's me… yeah yeah I'm sure you are…. No but I'm sure you can put down your damn magazines for this…. Nope not this time; it's about the girl…. Yeah yeah shut the hell up! So do you want to teach her or not? I just sent her on her way… hehehe nope. Didn't mention you at all…. Yup, that same one. You better work fast if you want her, wouldn't want someone else to steal away your first ever girl successor, hmm?"

-x-

It didn't take her very long to find a suitable teacher once more, considering the abundance of tennis teachers in the area. Of course, it helped that her old teacher decided to be quite pleasant and shove a number at her when she returned to pick up her extra racquets. Of course, the gleam in his eyes as she took the number told her he had his own motive for giving her the name of a new teacher, but she left it alone. Though from the look in _his_ eyes, it seemed he knew she had her suspicions. She had left with a polite but bland thank you and called the recommended teacher as soon as she returned to her still (still) unpacked house.

After talking to the man on the phone, they had decided to start lessons two days from then and she had agreed to his suggestion. She had left the place and time left up to him as she had no real preference. He had oddly suggested his house, and it made her tense minutely before hesitantly speaking in the affirmative. She idly wondered if she was allowing herself to be taught by a pervert, but the thought was soon pushed back a bit, though it seemed to linger on the barest surface.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was expecting when meeting the man. His almost arrogant and teasing voice seemed to match his face to a tee, though his clothing looked a bit awkward on him. The man's face was that of boredom, yawning loudly as he scratched at his stomach, his plain white shirt bunching as he did so. Non-descript black shorts where a bit wrinkled, shifting as he slouched against the side of his house (temple?) His skin was a bronzed color, darker than her own sun-kissed color. The arches and structure of his face were sharp, his chin and lower face lined with a bit of stubble.

All in all he played the part of the average man, really, but his eyes are what drew her to him. They shown with a light that seemed as if he had much to teach her, and it made her excited though she hid the feeling well.

Standing before him, she watched as he simply smiled at her, eyes arching a bit as they gazed at her though half lidded hazel orbs, his smile bordering on a smirk. She showed no outward reaction to the almost predatory look, but her eyes sharpened a bit as she looked at him in an almost interested manner.

"Are you ready to start?" he drawled, and she nodded without a word, face smoothed of all emotion as she did so. He smiled again, his lips lifting even more and teeth gleaming as he gazed at her. Suddenly, she was tense. The man walked forward in such a way that it was as if he were an animal on the prowl and it seemed as if his muscles rippled beneath his simple shirt. And suddenly, she realized that this man wasn't plain at all. No, this man was anything but and suddenly, she felt nervous.

_What have I gotten myself into_, she thought in a bemused fashion.

-x-

It was rather quiet in his house, though he seemed unaffected by the lack of sounds.

His beautiful wife was working, his son sleeping, and himself reading. Or at least, that was what he had intended to do. It seemed as though his mind had decided to wander and soon his thoughts were surrounded around a young girl his friend had spoken of. He had known the man back in his days as a professional, and he had thought the man couldn't get excited about much of anything. Of course, he had been proven wrong when he had gotten a phone call with the man practically yelling in excitement.

He yawned loudly, breaking the silence momentarily. He scratched as his exposed stomach slowly, his eyes half lidded as he thought over the information he was given. The girl was a natural if everything his friend had told him was indeed true. Her progression in her technique was mind boggling it seemed. She was getting more skilled each lesson, and her determination to push through ever exercise seemed to impress his friend. It seemed she was very flexible and in shape, perhaps because of previous sports or just a fondness of the gym? Either way, the girl was amazing.

His ambition had been to progress his sons to the point of the world's best, and Ryoma was steadily making his way there. Of course, his other son was exceptional as well, but he only knew the level of his play based on what it was when he had left them five years ago so it was entirely possible for him to have gained even more skill since then. She would never replace Ryoga, but he wanted another student to fill his place beside Ryoma. And besides the brat needed a friend, and perhaps even a girlfriend?

The thought made him laugh, the overly loud sound echoing in the otherwise silent home. A ringing of the phone startled him out of his laughter, his brows furrowed as he lazily brought himself to his feet to answer it.

"My darling Rinko!" he answered in an enthusiastic voice.

"Eh? No it's me."

He pouted; annoyed it wasn't his wife he was looking forward to hearing. He grumbled a bit, switching hands as he leaned against the kitchen table.

"Ugh. Waddaya want bastard. I'm busy."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you are."

It sounded much too sarcastic for his tastes and he let his displeasure known by mumbling angrily.

"Unless you suddenly want to give me your sister's number, go away. I have an important meeting." He said, glancing at his unread magazine with a longing look. Of, there was so many beautiful women just waiting to be seen and he was stuck with this bastard.

"No, but I'm sure you can put down your damn magazines for this."

He sighed, running a hand through his messed up hair. The man just knew him too well it seemed; how annoying.

"What? If this is about another article…" he growled, warning in his voice. His eye twitched when the other laughed a bit.

"Nope not this time; it's about the girl."

He stared at the plain wall in front of him with a blank stare. What girl? Slowly, realization dawned in his face and he laughed loudly, eyes sparkling with mirth.

"The girl finally beat your worthless ass, huh?"

"Yeah yeah shut the hell up! So do you want to teach her or not? I just sent her on her way." The other grumbled, snapping at him through the phone. Good feelings left as he caught the last of his friend's words.

"You sent her on her way…" he repeated slowly, slowly standing straighter so he wasn't leaning on the table the creaked at the loss of weight. "Did you not tell her about me?" he asked.

There was laughter here, and he could only imagine his friend scratching at the back of his neck in an almost sheepish motion.

"Hehehe nope. Didn't mention you at all, actually."

His stare still rather blank he spoke slowly. "You mean the girl that showed skill to the level of Ryoma already and she was only a few weeks into her training…"

"Yup that same one." He sounded too happy as he chirped his response. "You better work fast if you want her. Wouldn't want someone else to steal away your first ever girl successor, hmm Nanjiro?"

And he had worked fast. He had hung up as soon as his friend had stopped talking and was ready to call the girl. Of course, he had quickly realized he had no such number and he had angrily dialed his friend's number once more, demanding the number. His friend was quite annoying and said he would give his number to the girl, so that it looked like a recommendation instead of a creepy call. He had agreed and two days later he was training the girl.

His first impression of her was that she was a very un-cute little girl, just like his little brat. Instead of being cocky and arrogant like Ryoma though, she was just cold and seemingly unemotional. It unnerved him a bit, but didn't stop him from throwing jokes left and right- undeterred by her bland stares and dead silence. Despite the lack of emotion, the girl was actually cute ion appearance. Shoulder length onyx hair tied back, wind-swept bangs across her forehead, glowing emerald eyes, and a surprisingly developed body for a kid made others her own age and even a little older stare. Of course, he wasn't a pedophile; only a pervert. His interests only applied to everyone high school age and up.

He had morals, okay?

But if there was anything that could be said about this girl, it was that she wasn't in fact a natural in tennis; she was just incredibly hard working. There were flaws in her play, adjustments that needed to be made in her stances and swings, and work needed to be done to her stamina and strength. Sure, she was strong and her stamina was impressive, but she would need to double it if she wanted to get anywhere close to getting a point from him. He pushed that girl to her limits. Hours of intense training; running, push-ups, sit ups, swings, weights, and everything else he could think of that would further her playing ability. But what made him most impressed was that she never said anything against it. It didn't matter if her legs shook, it didn't matter she was tired, and it didn't matter that it was dark and almost impossible to see her own hand in front of her; she did everything he told her and beyond.

Soon, he began to forget the young girl was just that; a young girl.

He trained her like an adult, and he trained her mercilessly. He won against her on the court as motivation, and he tested her constantly. Her physical limits as well as her mental. He drilled it into her that in order to play- in order to _win_- you had to have not only a strong physical body, but a strong mental state. Her opponent could trick her, push her, insult her, tease her, do anything that could get a reaction out of her; even hurt her own possible team mates or observers, but she couldn't allow them to gain any ground. He made her understand that here, to people who played this sport, it wasn't just a game. It was their life and while some may argue that it wasn't good to have such a thing as a life goal, it was something that just was.

And after intense training for four weeks, five in the morning to nine at night, she had gotten so skilled that he began to have to pay attention to their matches.

He knew she would progress rapidly, but this seemed to be almost inhuman. Every day he watched her improve and he watched his superiority slowly vanish under her rapidly developing skills. It seemed as if the girl was a monster, something inhuman, because of her progress. She grew stronger, faster, better. Everything about her was improved, and soon she could bench his weight.

But instead of slowing after four weeks, she still went at it.

She grew more and more, and never stopped. It made him wonder how much room she really had to improve, and just how much she _would_ improve.

The thought scared him, he found.

-x-

**[February 22****th**** (Five Weeks After Their Meeting); 6:46 A.M.]**

Nanjiro took a deep breath, letting it free slowly. He hummed a happy tune as the sun shined brightly; the wind cooling his hot body. He wiped at his slick forehead, and scanned his surroundings with a goofy looking smile painted on his tanned face.

Today was a good day he decided; the sun was out, he had a little fun with his wonderful wife that morning, and his son actually listened (sort of) to his stories that morning (despite having woken the boy up to tell them). Oh, and the girl that was running around the courts for the seventy-fifth time. Yes, life was good. Humming, he checked his watch and cursed a bit, before turning toward the fast moving girl jogging.

"Oi! Hitomi you're done!" he yelled, waving in an annoying fashion. She ignored his antics, slowing down her pace till she reached him. Breathing deeply, she stretched her legs a bit, bending them behind her as she gave her teacher a look. Nanjiro smirked; happy that he now had even more motivation for his other little brat.

"You have an opponent today." He informed her, his mirth increasing at her narrow-eyed look. He simply smiled cheekily, enjoying the fact he had information she didn't. It rather annoyed him that the girl knew just as much, if not more than himself on an intellectual level. Obviously, she wasn't just training her body and her tennis skills.

He watched her as she seemed to think, giving a small nod in his direction as she seemed to try to narrow down possible opponents. He threw her a water bottle, and she caught it with one hand without looking, wiping at her face with her shirt as she did. He eyed her graceful movements and toned body in pride. It wasn't bulky at all, but there was absolutely no fat evident on her body- his training and eating plan had ensured that. Her legs were tanned and toned, her stomach flat and muscled with a six pack, and her arms strong but elegantly thin. Her body really was amazing; not in a perverted sense either.

Of course, the scars where something he worried often about. They were so deep and were so many that he wondered what in the world the girl did before she moved here, but never asked. He had a feeling he would only screw up the already little tolerance the girl had for him.

Though putting those thoughts aside, he found pride that his student was a very strong player, and even more so that she had won her first game against him only yesterday. The thought made him sulk a bit, but he was proud. And the only thing left for her to do now was to light a fire underneath his boy…

"And? Where is this opponent?" she asked evenly, shooting him a look from above her water bottle as she went back to slowly drinking a small amount of water in little sips to ensure she wouldn't get cramps.

He always wondered why the girl never spoke much, but as the sound floated to his ears he had his answer. The girl's voice was smooth and soft, but cold and hard as steal. It was an odd combination and it wasn't unpleasant, but it was unnerving and because of that she never seemed to speak much. The only time was when she was playing, and that was only because it was part of her playing style. He shivered a bit, remembering what kind of style she had developed herself. It wasn't something for him, but it was a sure way to break down your opponent quickly. Her knowledge of an individual's weaknesses was kind of scary but useful against anyone. Of course, she knew their physical weakness as well, but it was her knowledge of almost everything about you that made you start to lose it. She never looked up any of her opponents, getting any and all information on them by analyzing them as they played each other. It was scary really, but amazing at the same time.

"Ne, what do you want Oyaji?" a sleepy voice intoned, and he turned to see his son, dressed and a racquet in hand. The boy yawned, rubbing at his eye and giving his father a half lidded glare that made him smirk. The glare intensified.

"Hehehe, well brat, I have an opponent for you!" he informed him enthusiastically, watching as Ryoma's eyes locked on Hitomi's and they stared at each other for a long analyzing moment.

"Yadda."

Nanjiro glared at his son, suddenly annoyed at the dismissal.

"Why?" he demanded, watching as his son's eyes slowly moved to his own and away from Hitomi's glowing orbs.

"Don't feel like it." He said simply, shrugging and turning away. Walking away he ignored his father indignant yelling easily, use to the hissy fit it seemed.

"Hmm. I wonder… are you afraid?"

At the soft question Ryoma froze, turning slowly to meet the eyes of a blank Hitomi.

"No, I'm not." He said, annoyance creeping into his voice. Hitomi's eyes seemed to flash momentarily.

"Really. My mistake; I thought when one was unafraid they faced their challenger… perhaps you're just nervous you will be beaten by a girl in front of the one that is your ambition?"

Her words slipped from her lips easily and her eyes sparkled a bit at Ryoma's flinch. The boy gave her an annoyed glare and walked swiftly to the courts, giving her an impatient look.

"Well, are you coming or not."

Hitomi slowly grinned, giving the annoyed boy an uneasy feeling. But by then, it was too late. Of course, his pride would have never allowed him to quit anyway.

And his pride was always his downfall.

-x-

"_Do you like toying with your opponents, egging them on, and getting a reaction from them? Do you enjoy their weaknesses and their hopelessness? Do you like your power over them?"_

Game 1-0, Hitomi.

"_Hm, power. You like it, need it, even crave it. It's what you never had when you were playing against your father; it was the reason why he is your ambition instead of a professional. No, you don't want to defeat your father; you want to defeat your weakness. You want power."_

Game 2-0, Hitomi.

"_Ah, I see now. You hate your size, your inability to be strong. Have you been bullied before, perhaps put down and forced into submission; unknowingly even, perhaps? Yes, that's it. That's what you hate the most, isn't it? Someone making you submit unknowingly, never knowing how much you are unable to be strong. You hate their power, and envy it. Yes, isn't that the reason for your sharp tongue, your glaring eyes; the fire in your soul?"_

Game 3-0, Hitomi.

"_You're trembling Ryoma… Why; do I scare you? Why; because I know your weaknesses? Because I know your deepest secrets? Why; because your masks won't work on me? Ah, Ryoma. I don't want to break you, child. No… I want to set you _aflame_."_

Game 4-0, Hitomi.

"_You love this power, this superiority that you seem to possess against your opponents. You want your father's power, don't you? Isn't that why you copy his style; why you don't have your own? If you had your own, it would be much too weak. It would be without _power_; isn't that what you think?"_

Game 5-0, Hitomi.

"_It's not enough… is it? This copy of your father, this fakeness of it all. No… it's not enough. Not for you, at least. You're missing something, but you don't know what. You have the flame, but not the enormity of the fire. You want it, but can't seem to reach for it. What was the point, right? No motivation. No, no reason beyond your father's power. Oh child, you have so much to learn; so much to obtain. Perhaps… I can give it to you? Perhaps I can; but only after I take from you. You're glaring at me now, hmm? Do you hate the thought of something being taken from you? Ah, Ryoma, your glare does nothing to me; your body and playing speak- no scream- your true feelings. Anger, frustration… __**fear**__. I will take what you cling to, Ryoma. I will take your power. And in order to get it back you must get it back yourself."_

15-0, Hitomi.

"_Get it, grab it, and make it. Not your father's way, and definitely not anyone else's. __Find your own way, make your own style make…your own power."_

30-0, Hitomi.

"_Why are you hesitating? Don't hesitate! Do it! Do it now!"_

30-15, Ryoma.

"_Better! Fight back! Why are you acting weak! You're not weak, you are not this pathetic! Get off your ass boy! You're tired, you're sore? I don't care, the world doesn't care! Now play, Ryoma. Isn't that what you really want? To play…?"_

30-30, Ryoma.

"_I'm not good enough, isn't that what your thinking? No, you're not. No, but you will be. Mada Mada Dane… was it?"_

45-30, Hitomi.

"_This game means nothing to me. No, this game will mark nothing for me for I already knew. No, but it is the marking for you, Ryoma. It will be the day that you finally…"_

45-45, Ryoma.

"_Finally… were set aflame…"_

Game 6-0, Hitomi.

"…_Game, set, and match…Ne, Ryoma… become what I know you can."_

-x-

**[February 25****th**** (Three Days After Ryoma Vs Hitomi); 5:34 p.m.]**

If there was one thing that annoyed Hitomi to no end, it was unpacking; hence the reason why she had delayed it as long as possible… and until now. Of course, logically she knew she should unpack and that it wouldn't take too long considering how much she had brought with her, but that was beside the point.

Really, she just wanted to start whining. She hated unpacking.

Grumbling a bit, she took her shrunken wardrobe and carefully, slowly added a bit of magic. If she gave too much, she would alert the death eaters, if she put too little, she would be here all day. The wardrobe slowly gained height and weight, growling large against her bedroom wall. The walls were a plain white, and the wardrobe an onyx black. Not really caring, she moved to the next shrunken object in her messenger bag. She slowly but surely unshrinking a bed, a dinner table, a coffee table, two couches, a night stand, various black and white pictures of the forest that reminded her of the forbidden one, and a small rug for the foot of her bed. The house was pretty plain and bare, but she didn't really care.

Sighing, she peeled of her sweaty clothes on the way to the bathroom, and turning on the shower she stepped under it. Water ran down her body, soothing the aching muscles that protested after today's workouts. She sighed in relief as she felt her muscles un-tense, and she rubbed at her arms absently as she slowly closed her eyes. Her mind wandered as she stood underneath the waterfall of warm water, and she found a small smile sneaking onto her face. She didn't think she could, but she really was adapting to this new world. It was strange not fighting, and odd not hiding but she could get use to it. She always had something to do, with training and playing tennis all the time. And when she wasn't she was either sleeping, or reading and studying. She had had Draco cast a charm on one of her earrings but that didn't help with actually writing Japanese. So she had begun studying the language obsessively, and now she could speak it without the charm and write it as well. It would have been a problem if she couldn't write in the language considering she was going to a Japanese school. Yeah, bad idea.

_Speaking of Draco…_

She sighed again, a bit more heavily than the last, and grabbed the shampoo to lather her hair. As she lathered she thought of the friend she was forced to leave behind. She had yet to write the blonde, and the blonde had yet to contact her. Of course, if he had she would have assumed it to be a trap considering only she is able to contact him and not the other way around. She did need to do it though; she knew how worried he would be if she didn't. She hadn't forgotten, only hesitant in contacting the other. What if he was discovered because of her? What if the letter was intercepted and/or replaced by the death eaters fake letter?

She huffed, grabbing the conditioner and lathering it into her hair as she continued to think. She knew Draco, and even if there was a possibility that he would be found out he would want some kind of a confirmation that she had settled in and was okay. Deciding to do so before she went to sleep, she rinsed and lathered her body quickly. Shutting of the water she leaned her head against the tilled wall of the shower, breathing deeply before stepping out. She eyed herself critically in the mirror, impressed despite everything.

She had worked hard these past weeks, and she had thrown herself into training. Her body had responded accordingly and she rather liked the results. She felt so much better; so much stronger than before. Of course, she had her teacher to thank for her wondrous results. She did the work but he showed her what to do to get such results. The thought of her teacher brought a small, fond smile to her face and she shook her head in amusement. Patting her body dry she thought back to the numerous moments her teacher was an idiot and it made her smile a bit more. He was a pervert; a lazy, porn reading idot pervert- but he was a damn good teacher.

She had been right about him, he definitely wasn't normal… actually, he wasn't entirely muggle. He had a very small amount of magic, but it was magic none the less. He wasn't really a squib, as squibs had virtually no magic and he had about double that of a squib's, but he was close enough to the title that he wouldn't be able to focus the magic into a wand. He wasn't able to have accidental magic or perform spells, but he might have been able to if the man hadn't already concentrated the magic into his eyes. She had been amused when she had first realized the man had unintentionally done so, and even more so when she realized his son had done so as well. Of course, there was a possibility that it was a generic trait passed down from his side of the family, but such a thing would be virtually impossible with the amount of magic they possessed.

She paused in her thoughts to dress quickly after putting on underwear and a bra (that annoyed her still- she was twelve for god's sake!); low riding black sweatpants and a nondescript white shirt. She pulled at the shirt a bit, annoyed by its tightness. Shrugging after a moment, she ignored it and grabbed her now empty messenger bag as she made her way to the plain kitchen. There was the table she unpacked, a refrigerator, a stove and some chairs but otherwise it was very empty. Grabbing her shoes next to the table she quickly slipped them on and tied them. Remembering to get her keys and wallet she stuffed the items into her bag, deciding to grab a water bottle and putting that in there too. She jogged to her door, opening it and scanning her surroundings before jogging out. Slipping it over her head and under her arm it settled on her hip as she slowed to a walk. Glancing at her surroundings, she looked for the small corner store she had spotted her first day.

Finding it rather quickly, she pushed the door open and a sounding bell dinging in her ear as she entered. Ignoring the sound she swiftly made her way to the back where the produce was located. She scanned the rows slowly, grabbing a basket in the corner and gathering various fruits and vegetables. Moving to the meats, she grabbed chicken and steak, by passing the other meats. She glided over to the drinks and scanned the rows for unflavored, plain water. Why where there so many flavored waters? They were good and all, but really? Why so damn many?

She broke from her thoughts as she almost bumped into someone. She side-stepped just in time, pressing her back against a row of food as the teen continued forward and tripping over his own feet. He flailed, his fruits falling to the ground as he passed her form. Moving quickly, she grabbed his arm but didn't have enough space or room to grab the food. He blinked, standing up slowly and grumbling as he looked at the fallen food. He ran a hand through his messy black hair before giving her an appreciative glance. Slowly, a look gathered in his eyes and they widened or the point of it being humorous.

"Y-Y-You! You're the one who helped me! But…" he exclaimed, trailing off as he scanned her rather short form before his eyes met emerald once again.

"You're a girl?" he blurted out before he covered his mouth with both hands, looking rather horrified at his unintentional 'word vomit'. She just thought it was rather funny really, and didn't take any offense.

"Yes." She confirmed, giving him an amused glance, her lips twitching at his antics.

"Was it the boobs that made you realize?" she asked, not able to let the entertainment leave just yet. He grew red, shooting her a glare that only made him cuter in her opinion.

"Hey." He yelled, annoyed by her amused looks and unwillingly to acknowledge his burning cheeks.

She only shrugged and walked to the counter, ignoring his momentarily frozen form. He seemed to process her movements fast enough, quickly jogging to catch up to her as she waited for the old man to scan all of her items so she could pay.

"Hey, you never told me your name you know." He stated, giving her what he probably thought was a pointed glare. She thought it was simply a pout though, and the thought made her lips twitch.

"Hitomi." She said simply, shooting to ignore his looks.

"Oh… well, what are you doing here?" he asked stupidly, reddening when she rose an eyebrow and through a dramatic glance toward her purchases before paying and grabbing the bags.

"Yeah, stupid question. Well, I'm Kirihara Akaya, but you can just call me Akaya if you want." he suggested as he jogged to catch up to her fast moving form. Damn the girl was fast. Hitomi only hummed in response, walking out of the store and breathing in the cool air before setting off toward her house. The teen followed much to her chagrin.

"Did you hear me?" he asked, an annoyed look on his face. She glanced at him, eyes glowing as she did.

"What was that Aka-chan?" she asked in such a way that it would have been innocent if not for her emotionless face. The teen spluttered and froze, making indigent noises as she silently laughed and continued on her way. He seemed to catch up though, yelling enthusiastically against the nickname as he made animated hand gestures. She ignored his antics and continued to her house stopping right by the small path leading to the front door from the street.

She glanced at the teen with analyzing eyes. He was talking animatedly about one thing or another, completely ignoring the fact she wasn't even paying attention. He had been doing so for awhile now, and she had taken to simply nodding and saying nothing, never really listening. He was a nice boy, from what she gathered, though there was an unmistakable underling of violence in his eyes. His form was muscled but lithe, though there was obvious strength in his body. She wondered if he did a sport, but decided not to ask. The boy would talk even more, and she really needed to speak to Draco. And of course there was the matter of his red eyes from before…

Sighing she turned swiftly, making the teen stop speaking suddenly. He blinked at her and she sighed again, running a hand through her now dry onyx locks, running them over her side-swept bangs and ghosting over her hair-covered scar. She shot him a look.

"I'm home." She told him blandly, watching as he blinked and nodded at her statement, taking a moment to glance at her home.

"Ah." He said simply, nodding again. He looked rather odd doing so, but she said nothing only looking at him as the silence stretched on. She mentally sighed again. Was he ever going to leave?

"I'm going inside and going to sleep. You, leave." She said bluntly, simply, and turned to walk up the path ot her door. A shout made her stop and glance over her shoulder at the teen. He looked a bit conflicted but he looked determined so she ignored the other feeling for the stronger one.

"Do you play tennis?" he asked, and she blinked. She nodded slowly, watching as a bright smile light up his face as the confirmation.

"Do you want to go running tomorrow morning?" he asked, more confidently. She narrowed her eyes and he fidgeted a bit but she ended up shrugging and nodding ignoring his smile once again at the agreement.

"Okay! I'll be here at eight?"

She looked at him blandly.

"Eight? In the morning?" she asked slowly and he nodded looking at her a bit worriedly.

"Is that too early?"

She shook her head and gave him a rather unimpressed look that made him scrunch up his face.

"No. Be here at five." She demanded, swiftly opening her front door and closing it. Before it closed she saw his rather horrified face and it made her smirk a bit as she walked into her home to begin to write Draco's letter.

Tomorrow would be interesting, she was sure.

-x-

**[February 23****rd****(Two Days Previous, One Day After Ryoma Vs Hitomi); 3:22 a.m.]**

The silence was deafening, allowing his mind to rapidly replay the events that happened only yesterday.

He had been unable to catch any sleep at all, simply laying in his bed and staring at the ceiling through the dark, thinking. There were no excuses for him in that game; he had been in top condition. He had given it his all, everything he had and had used everything he had gained through his short life and it had hadn't been enough.

It was never enough.

Beating other kids his age was never hard. He had entered many tournaments and everyone he beat them mercilessly. He never allowed them to gain a point, finishing all the games in five minutes or less. He always won, and he enjoyed it. Loved it, even.

"_Do you enjoy their weaknesses and their hopelessness…? Do you like your power over them?""_

He screw his eyes shut as the words floated across his mind, his hand clenching and his teeth grinding. He had been angry after that game. That girl, Hitomi, had simply walked away after her parting words leaving him kneeling on the ground and his father oddly silent. He had been so angry, so mad that the words hadn't really processed in his mind at that moment in time. But after he had dragged his body home thirty minutes later, he had thought over it. And as he thought over her many words and accusations, he had found himself unable to be mad at her. Why would he be mad, when everything she had said was true, no matter how much he had wanted to ignore his own weaknesses?

He sighed, rolling over and rubbing his face into his soft pillow, a ghost of a smile on his face as his faithful cat Karupin meowed softly into the darkness it settled in next to his still form. He petted her softly, his mind still thinking rapidly as he thought over her last words.

"_Ah, Ryoma, your glare does nothing to me; your body and playing speak- no _scream_- your true feelings. Anger, frustration… __**fear**__. I will take what you cling to, Ryoma. I will take your power. And in order to get it back you must get it back yourself."_

"_Get it, grab it, and make it. Not your father's way, and definitely not anyone else's."_

"_Find your own way, make your own style make…your own power."_

"_Why are you hesitating? Don't hesitate! Do it! Do it now!"_

"_Fight back! Why are you acting weak! You're not weak, you are not this pathetic! "_

"…_Now play, Ryoma. Isn't that what you really want? To play…?"_

"_I'm not good enough, isn't that what you're thinking? No, you're not. No, but you __**will be**__…"_

"_This game means nothing to me. No, this game will mark nothing for me for I already knew. No, but it is the marking for you, Ryoma. It will be the day that you finally…finally… were set aflame…"_

He sighed, burying his face in his pillow before restlessly turning to go back to facing his ceiling. He couldn't see it since it was so dark, but he didn't really care. He didn't feel like putting a light on, even if he was still awake. He sat up slowly, the sheets pooling at his waist as he did so. Pushing them aside he rose to his feet lightly, a hiss slipping from his lips as his feet met cold wood. Padding across his room cloaked in black he blindly made his way to his window, looking out with a troubled expression. He slowly allowed his eyes to close as he pressed his tan face against cool glass.

He knew he had to change! He knew he had to face his fears and become stronger! But how? How could he do such a thing when everything he had worked for had been taken from him? How was he supposed to get it back? Could he even try? Could he even succeed if he did try?

"…_Ne, Ryoma… become what I know you can…"_

His eyes snapped open, glaring into the night.

He had made his decision. He would train, train all over again to gain his own playing style, to better himself, to face his fears and gain what he always had wanted. He let out a breathe, looking a bit confused at the light feeling in his chest. Had it always been this easy? To just admit that he had a weakness, that he wanted power? He sighed, running a hand through his green tinted onyx hair. It didn't seem to matter now though. He had thought about it, and now he knew.

He slept with a smile on his face that day, inwardly swearing to meet Hitomi once more to thank her.

-x-

"Have you found them yet?" a gruff voice asked, face shadowed and scarred by his hard life.

The man before him shook but his face held no expression, knowing that the man that he now followed would not have mercy. He steeled himself silently, straightening and lifting his head as gazed at the man seated in the large chair.

"No, I have not." He said simply. It wasn't disrespected, only stated but it didn't seem to matter to the scarred man and he growled at the other, lifting a pale hand wrapped around a thing stick of polished wood.

"Crucio!"

The man's screams faded into the background as the man thought over how he was going to find his targets. For his mission had changed. Revenge was irrelevant at this point, at least for his fallen master. No, now he desired the power his master had once had, and he sought to keep it.

And finding those two would ensure his power, and the darks position in the magical world.

His scratchy laughed echoed in the large meeting hall, making many shiver.

For they knew that they had once again chose an unmerciful and insane master.

-x-

A/N: I apologize for the long wait. I had school and such, and as you probably noticed I am an incredible procrastinator. Oops.

Well, review please. I will update when I have time, and since I don't rather like homework, it will probably be soon enough.

Tell me which school you wish for Hitomi to be in. School is in about a month and two weeks, so there is still time to vote but do so quickly. I'm unsure of how much time next chapter will cover.

Thank you for your reviews. I am eternally grateful for the support.

-x-

**Timeline:**

The Final Battle: May 2nd.

May 8th- December 17th: Draco and Harelda's Hiding time. During this time they went from secret house to secret house to hide from the left over death eaters. These locations are not limited to Britain; locations include The United States, France, Japan, and Germany.

January 5TH: Harelda finally leaves to heads to the airport that will bring her to Japan. (She has already been there, but Draco and she agree that the death eaters will not expecting her to go to a place she has already been and will most likely look over Europe before anywhere.)

April 6th: School begins for Harelda. [The school is not limited to Seigaku, for your information. She could go anywhere really, so it's up to you. You can tell me your opinions through p.m. or reviews; whichever.]

June 31st: Harelda's [now Hitomi's] birthday.

December 24th: Ryoma Echizen's birthday.

September 25th: Kirihara Akaya's birthday.

-x-

**Japanese To English**

Yadda= No.

Oyaji= Father, Dad, etc.

Ne= Hey (This is the best I can describe it. It's really just a word used for a pause while thinking. I am unsure to how it translates to English.)

Mada Mada Dane= Not good enough, not yet, etc. There are many translations to this, so I apologize for the possible confusion.

*******Note on the use of Japanese-** I use these terms because I can't translate them into English without it feeling incorrect, even if I know what they mean. It just doesn't sound right. I apologize for the possible annoyance.

-x-


	4. Chapter 4: Letters and Black Magic

-x-

A/N: Ahhhhhhhhhhh. I am so very sorry this is so late, but thank you so much for the reviews! Your words are very appreciated, trust me! It helps a lot when your going through a block and then you get a great review! Thank You, seriously.

By the way, i know many have their questions, and i know how annoying it is for someone to not answer them, so if you have a question you simply cannot wait for put these (******) right before it and i will answer your questions as soon as i see them! Thank You again!~

-x-

Kekat [Reviewed Chapter 3.] : I think you're reasons for your choice is very well thought out, and along the lines of my own actually. I will continue to think about it, but as of now it seems that their school is the one that is winning among popular demand.

Kazukimi [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Thank you for the review and thoughtful reflections on the chapter. I think the Akaya scene was quite cute as well Thank you again for the review!

kiiyouko [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed.

Eovin [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Yes, I never did like the whole scene between Tezuka and Ryoma. And yes, both schools are very much tied with reasons for each being the school Hitomi does eventually attend. I love your thoughts on this, and thank you so much for the review! I loved reading it since you had the same thoughts ^.^

mangagirl64 [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Why thank you!

bettikus [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Thank you, and I will! ^.^

daniii [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Thank you for the review! You had interesting votes for schools. No one has suggested Jin's or Tachibana's school as of yet, and I honestly had never even considered the two to begin with. Of course, anything with Jin involved seems to be quite interesting…

Azalie-Kauriu [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Thank you for your review and your vote!

Tokyo Tensai [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Yes, I think she is one as well! ^.^ Thank you for the review as well as your vote!

xXxOtAkU-444xXx [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Why, thank you~

neko-in-tears [Reviewed Chapter 3] : Thank you for your vote/review. Your reasons for the school are what many others are saying as well…

gender-bender-lover-101 [Reviewed Chapter 2] : I hope that chapter 3 was long enough/ posted quick enough for you! Thank you for the review/vote.

Split Illusion [Reviewed Chapter 2] : Yes, I do read over my chapters, but usually after I post them so I can make note on what to fix when I actually have time to do so. I personally don't want a beta reader because I write on this site for practice, and I would like to further my skills in both grammar and writing. I am also aware that is seems as if the plot line is cliché (though there really isn't that many of this genre- in this type of crossover) but I wanted to have a way that she could get to Japan and have as little connections to England as possible. Of course, most of the other stories have her de-aging simply because she/he wanted the life she never had after the war, but this is a bit different and you will see soon enough. Yes, her opinions and thoughts are dark and jaded but they will gradually become more lighthearted as she gets to know the people around her (in chapter 3 she had very little of these thoughts already). As for the name itself, I agree with you 100%. Harelda is a hideous name, but so is Harry in my opinion. And Harelda is the female version of said name, and its meaning gives more life to the character I wish to make. Kirihara got so far away from where he lives because of his usual,' sleeping on the bus but never getting off until the last stop' routine. This happens numerous times in the manga/anime and it happened here as well. And yes! I AM SO HAPPY I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED WHAT I WANTED! I really wanted the story line to pick up some and get lots in, with characters and such, but still didn't want to leave out much as I did so. I'm glad someone says I got at least that part right! T.T. Thank you for your very detailed review and I hope this answers your (many) questions~

Jess [Reviewed Chapter 2] : Thank you for the review, and I'm happy you are happy! And thank you, about my uncle I mean.

TheScarletIbis [Reviewed Chapter 2] : I'm glad you did! I was hoping it had turned out okay~

-x-

**Story Title: **_Learning To Live._

**Warnings:** **G**_**ender-bender (Fem!Harry),**__ strong violence, gore, past abuse (physical and sexual) ,use of alcohol (underage) and cigarettes (underage), language, possible adult situations, Slytherin!Harry, strong!Harry, Very good tennis playing!Harry, and mild bashing of both light and dark sides._

**Story Rating:**_ Somewhere between T and M; may change to fully M._

**Chapter Rating:**_ T._

**Chapter Title:**_ Letters, Black Magic, and Modeling?_

**Words:**_ 6,435_

**Pages:**_ 14_

**A/N:**_ Sorry for any possible (and probable) spelling mistakes and such! Forgive me!_

**Last Time:** "_His scratchy laughed echoed in the large meeting hall, making many shiver; for they knew that they had once again chosen an unmerciful and insane master."_

-x-

**[February 25****th**** (After Leaving Hitomi's House); 5:53 p.m.]**

_D,_

_I hope you get this letter in a fairly safe and secure manner. I also hope you haven't been too reckless- but it seems as if that hope is a bit _too_ hopeful, hmm? _

_Everything here is fairly okay, besides the fact that I am bitten by these horrid bugs constantly. I never even knew such things existed, let alone were so vicious. _

_It's oddly dull here, despite the fact that there's wildlife among me in startling numbers, but I am managing. _

_Write when it is safe. _

_Please be careful; I can't lose you as well. _

_H._

She sighed, slowly lowering the pen to the hard surface of the desk she was currently sitting before. Her eyes scanned the letter, nodding in approval. It was short, and so pumped full of false information that Draco would realize in an instant. He knew that she did, in fact have an odd affection for bugs, so she would never think they were horrid, and even if she were bitten by them. Draco would know it would only be a mild annoyance and she would have never thought them important enough to write about. The only thing significant in the letter at all would be the first few lines and the last ones; anything in between was for the possible enemies that would intercept the message- an unlikely situation but possible. She wasn't about to risk both of their lives for something as simple as a letter.

Carefully folding the parchment, Hitomi raised the letter to the candle sitting at the edge of her desk. She eyed the purple flame with careful eyes before putting the letter above it and watching as it was quickly engulfed in the odd colored flames. She watched it burn with tired eyes, humming in relief when the letter disappeared, no ashes left behind. The flame flashed crimson before settling into purple once more and she let out a breath. Draco got the letter safely. Thank Merlin.

She sighed again, sagging a bit in her chair. She glanced out the window, watching as the sun slowly disappeared and the sky was bathed in blackness. She truly hoped that Draco was alright. If he wasn't…

She flinched, standing up abruptly and walking over to the window. Her hand slowly made its way to the glass, skin tingling as it met the cold surface. She stayed there for a long time, though time didn't really register as she stood by the fogged window, eyes gazing into nothingness. She tried valiantly to ignore the pang in her heart at the lingering thought of loosing Draco, as well as the sudden feeling of loneliness that plagued her soul. Her eyes fluttered closed, her forehead meeting the glass and her breathing slow and controlled.

It seemed as if she wouldn't be going to sleep tonight, she thought idly as she floated into her troubled thoughts.

-x-

**[February 26****th**** (Day After Hitomi Meets Kirihara); 5:34 a.m.]**

"Hmm…"

A soft sound of contentment floated into the air, sheets shuffling as a stray beam of light filtered in from the window. The teen under the sheets groaned and shifted, burying his face into a soft pillow before the teen settled once again, onyx hair peeping out from under the large quilt. A soft smile spread along his pale lips as he sighed once again, shifting a bit more and gathering the sheets once again-

Thump.

"Ugh."

The male teen sprawled along the floor groaned miserably, grumbling curses under his breath as he peaked through his messy onyx hair. He glared at the sheets wrapped around his legs, and huffed in an annoyed fashion as a beam of light shined into his still sensitive eyes. He sighed, sitting up carefully and releasing himself from the clutches of his sheets. Running a hand through his messy hair, he glanced at the clock and huffed in annoyance. It wasn't even six in the morning yet! He never got up this early, and now because of his stupid sheets he woke up way earlier than normal! Now that he was up, he wouldn't even be able to go back to bed-!

His body froze; his movements stiff as he slowly turned to face his clock once again. Brown eyes widened slowly to in an unimaginable size.

It was 5:40.

He was supposed to meet Hitomi at 5:00.

He was late.

Forty minutes late.

He wasn't even dressed.

With a desperate yell he ran, almost tripping over his cursed sheets once more before sprinting downstairs and slamming his door shut as he grabbed his laid out clothes and ran down stairs as he tugged them on.

He ignored the startled yells of his family, grabbing a towel and a water bottle before sprinting out of the door and praying that Hitomi wouldn't be too mad with him.

-x-

**[February 26****th ****(Same Day- Day After Hitomi Meets Kirihara); 3:28 a.m.]**

Hitomi hadn't slept that night, a predicament she had predicted.

She had spent the long hours of the night simply gazing out into the sky, slowly trying to reign in her emotions and strengthen her occulumcy shields. It wasn't easy, but she had slowly built the wall until she was finally finished around three in the morning.

She sighed, running a hand through her hair and grimacing when she was met with lightly damp hair. She wrinkled her nose in distaste, sighing as she rose from her perch before the window and stretched slowly. She peeled her clothes off as she had her way to the bathroom, humming in relief when hot water met her tense and sore muscles. Sitting in the same sitting position had really made her body sore, and she was happy to finally loosen her muscles. She had quickly washed and lathered her hair and body, and in ten minutes she was out of the shower and throwing on some simple black sweatpants and a dark green muscle shirt.

She glanced out her window as she gathered a small towel she slung across her shoulders and a bottle of water, taking in the inky blackness with a small sense of happiness. She would rather run in silence anyway, and Akaya wasn't due for another hour and a half. Gathering her hair in a small ponytail at the nap of her neck, and idly noting it had grown another inch or so, she opened her door and stepped out.

Breathing through her nose, she took off, enjoying the cool breeze on her slowly flushing face and the twinkling stars of the night. Her body slowly relaxed, the pounding of her feet meeting pavement making a steady sound and echoing into her ears as she simply focused on running and regulating her breath.

Slowly, her body set into a steady pace and as the colors invaded the darkness of the night sky she increased her speed slowly, soon coming into a sprint. She ran with everything she had, her body moving rapidly and her feet digging into the dirt as she dashed. A small smile made its way to her face as she passed by the many buildings and stores and a laugh escaped her lips. It sounded free, and in that moment she felt wonderful. It wasn't flying, but it was as close as she could get here in the muggle world, and she loved it.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins and she breathed heavily as she continued to run before slowly stopping as she came up to the end of the road that led to her house. She breathed deeply, wiping at her forehead and raising her gaze to the coloring sky. Her hand blocked a raising beam of light and she smiled, feeling good despite what had occurred that night. She loved running. When she ran, she forgot everything, everything but the pounding of her feet, the thumping of her heart, and the whispers of her breath. And the adrenaline only made it that much better; she had always been a rather large adrenaline junky.

Breathing deeply through her nose and exhaling through her mouth she glanced at her watch and sighed, slowly jogging to her house as the numbers revealed it to be almost five. Soon, she had arrived and she slowly stretched her legs as she looked down the street with narrowed eyes. After he had completely done her stretches she glanced at her clock revealing it was already 5:17.

Annoyed, she sighed and began jogging down the street. He wasn't there on time anyway.

-x-

**[February 26****th ****(Same Day); 6:46 a.m.]**

_Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move!_

Harsh, ragged pants permeated the air, the desperate sound drowned out by the distant giggles and squeals of children from the local park down the street. A lone figure leant against the wall of a building, his face shadowed as he continued to try to catch his breath. He cursed, crushing his fist and digging his nails into the skin as his body trembled. Slowly, much too slowly for his tastes, his body began to calm its tremors enough for the teen to sit up without the unwanted support of the wall. He sighed, looking up to the sky and an odd smile crossing his face as he stared at the free-looking birds in the sky.

How he envied them.

They were so free; so flexible and agile, their bodies moving with grace and their paths uninterrupted as they glided in the sky. How he wished his own body would allow him to do the same. His deep blue eyes darkened, thoroughly contradicting the odd smile twisting his lips as his thoughts turned darker. His grip on his racket grew stronger, and his jaw clenched as his gaze slowly turned to the lit up sign only feet away from his own position. The lights shone brightly, and he couldn't help but glare at the sign that happily announced its destination: The local hospital.

_I'll never be able to bring my team to Nationals if I can't even move! _He thought angrily, adrenaline pumping through his limbs as he forced his body to stand straight. He picked up the tennis ball and looked at in determination, throwing it into the air and raising his racket. A sudden pain raced through his body and he grunted; biting his lip with bruising force as the racket fell to the ground, the clanging sound echoing in his ears as he fells to his knees. The ball fell to the ground, bouncing until it hit the wall and rolled to his slumped form. He felt numb all over, and he cursed in his mind over and over again as his hands twisted in the fabric of his pants.

_Get up! Move already! I have to do this, I have to train! They need me! They need to win, I need to win-!_

"Are you alright?"

His head turned so fast it hurt his neck, but he ignored it in favor of staring at the person who had witnessed his weakened form.

She was rather small in stature, as well as thin but under his careful and observant gaze he saw the outline of strong muscles and the nature strength and agility beyond the short stature and the deceiving picture of the small girl. She had her hair pulled back in a rather messy ponytail at the nape of her neck and her bangs stuck to her flushed face. But the most interesting thing about her was her tone. It hinted nothing of pity or any emotion at all really.

He searched her face carefully, staring into bright emerald eyes as he regained his breath once again. He smiled at her, a forced one but a smile he knew came out flawless.

"Yes, quite fine thank you; just a bit out of breath." He laughed a bit, but the sound slowly faded as he watched her form in hidden wariness. She didn't smile back nor did she even twitch, she simply stared at him in an almost careful way, her eyes piercing into his own.

"What are you doing?" She questioned, though her voice was bland as she asked. He wondered why she even bothered asking when it was obvious but he answered anyway, a soft smile twisting his lips.

"Practicing." He said simply, watching as her eyebrow rose and her lips twitched.

"Really," she drawled apathetically, looking pointedly at his kneeling position before meeting his eyes once more.

"What exactly are you practicing? Hitting from the ground?"

His jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed, annoyance building despite his mostly composed face. How dare she? She knew nothing of his situation or of what he's been through. Nothing. He forced a smile that he knew looked too chilly to be pleasant.

"It seems my body won't cooperate with me today." He said simply watching as she raised her eyebrow again before she spoke.

"I see. " She said, and he narrowed his eyes once more when it seemed, or rather it sounded, as if she really did. There was no way she could have overlooked his (now usual) hospital garb or the fact that he was practicing on the wall of the hospital itself. There was a silence when she simply continued to give him searching looks, ignoring his oddly twisted face as he observed her own as well.

"Is it worth it?" she asked, his face blank as he gave her a confused look.

"Is what worth it?"

"Is the pain worth it?" she asked, and he decided that she knew enough to know how much pain he was in. He clenched his face but the determination burned in his midnight blue eyes.

"Yes." He confirmed easily and with a decisive nod of his head watching as she looked him over for a moment before sighing, but there was a small smile ghosting over his lips as she looked into his eyes and he couldn't help but to stare.

"I thought so." She said softly, but he heard it anyway and blinked when she searched into her bag for a moment before she held something out to him. He tilted his head in question, looking at her in confusion.

"It's a… family charm so to speak. It's supposed to give you good luck and good health. I'm sure you'll find it will help you… and your situation." She said simply before gently placing a necklace into his hand.

He looked at it with wide eyes, eyeing the beautiful blue-purple stone hanging from a delicate silver chain. The stone had beautiful swirling designs carved it into it, and he couldn't help but eyeing it in awe. It looked too ridiculously expensive to just give away! Though when he glanced back up and saw the almost stubborn look in her blank eyes, he knew she would not take it back. He glanced down at the beautiful necklace in his shaking hands and couldn't help but to marvel over its beauty for a moment. But when he turned back to thank her, his gaze met the large sakura tree across the tree; no one was there.

He blinked, climbing to his feet shakily as he looked around.

The street was empty, and though he could still hear the distant giggles and playing of the children, he found other than that it was silent. It was as if she was never there and he looked back at the necklace in his hands before smiling softly. He placed it around his neck, clipping it in place and gripping his hands tight as he spotted nurses coming over to his still form with frowns on their faces. He had, after-all, snuck out of his room. (Well, really they should have gotten used to this. This wasn't the first time!)

He smiled, looking at the birds once again as they flew, not understanding exactly why he felt so much better.

-x-

**[February 26****th ****(Same Day); 7:03 a.m.]**

She sighed, shaking her head at her own antics but no matter how dangerous it was what she just did she knew she would never take it back.

The stone she had given him had been made of pure crystallized magic; her magic. She had a couple more similar to it and always made sure she had one with her at all times. But what was concerning about the whole situation was what the stone did. The stone purified one's body from Black magic, which unlike Dark magic did in fact taint the body and magical core when used. The question was why did this teen have black magic attacking his body? And why did it affect him so badly when she sensed no magical core or magical potential from him?

A frown crossed her face as she thought carefully, jogging down the street a block away from her house. She was so lost in thoughts she never noticed running straight into someone, and she grunted forcefully as she flew to the ground, her thoughts screeching to a stop as she heard an equally surprised sound coming from the person whom she had crashed into. She groaned, annoyed with the fact she wasn't aware of her surroundings as she stood, rubbing her butt as she glared at the boy she crashed into before abruptly blinking.

"… Akaya?"

Said boy grumbled before stopping looking at her in shock before his face morphed into a mixture of horror, embarrassment and apology.

"I'm so sorry I'm so late! I'm not used to waking up so early, so when the alarm went off I didn't hear it and I woke up so late and I ran here as fast as I could! I had to take the bus but there was so much traffic and I wasn't going anywhere so I got off and ran! I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to! I went to your house but you weren't home and your parent's weren't there either so I ran around trying to find you but I couldn't find you!"

Hitomi blinked slowly, trying to catch up with the rapidly talking teen before sighing and rubbing at her temples.

"No, its fine."

When he shot her a look that meant he disagreed, she shook her head before he could say anything.

"No seriously, its fine. I had to do some things anyway so don't worry about it. We can still go jogging if you want." she offered, watching as he grinned, nodding at her.

"Sure sure! Let's go!" he said rather cheerfully, making her look at him in veiled disbelief. He was so bipolar! Shaking her head she set off, the black-haired teen right next to her as they took off at a steady jog down the street.

"So, how long have you been playing tennis?" he asked her, looking at her form the corner of his eye.

"Not too long." She said evasively. She didn't really want him to know she had only started a couple of months ago or so. He hummed looking at her oddly before she asked a question of her own.

"How did you know I played tennis?" she asked, and he grinned arrogantly.

"I'm a tennis regular at Rikkaidai, I know a tennis player when I see one, especially a skilled one." He said confidently, looking at her carefully as he did so. She hummed and nodded absently, understanding now where his reflexes and body type came from. She hadn't been entirely sure, but she knew that whatever sport he did do, he was skilled. She blinked, his statement coming back to her.

"Rikkaidai? Isn't that in Kanagawa?" she asked incredulously, looking at him oddly. He laughed sheepishly, nodding as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Yeah…"

"Why in the world did you come to Tokyo?" she asked, knowing for a fact that it was quite the trip to get from Kanagawa to Tokyo. He laughed again, looking mildly embarrassed.

"Well, you see I kind of fell asleep on the bus and this was the last stop and I had to get off so yeah…" he finished lamely, making her snort and him glare though it was rather half-hearted. She shook her head and turned onto another road, Akaya following easily.

"So, how old are you Hitomi?" he asked casually.

"Twelve." She answered rather darkly, annoyed at her age but knowing she didn't really have a choice. Besides, it's not like she looked that much older even when she was her original seventeen year-old self.

"Really?" he asked, surprised.

"I guess that answered the overall size but you look kind of… older than you are."

She glared at him, a tick forming in her eyes. "Are you calling me short?" she asked darkly. She was rather used to the fact she was going to be small of stature, but since the transformation she had become a tad bit sensitive about it. If she thought she was short before, she was really short now!

She watched with narrowed eyes as he raised his hands in a peace gesture, a shaky smile on his face.

"Hahaha … no?"

She eyed him for a bit before letting it go, her blank face reappearing flawlessly making her companion eyes her carefully before sighing in relief.

They ran for an hour and a half more, eventually stopping by a small corner store to get a water each. They lounged on a nearby street bench, stretching their thoroughly exercised muscles and sipping at their waters.

Hitomi eyed Akaya form the corner of her eye, a small sneer twisting at her lips before she sighed and snatched his water bottle away from her. He protested profusely, to which she simply raised an eyebrow.

"I know you're tired and thirsty, but drinking it like that will only make you get cramps." She said evenly, watching as he pouted but nodded. She hummed in satisfaction and handed him the water bottle back just as her phone rang. She twitched.

She had received it in the mail two weeks ago from Atobe, and much to her annoyance his number had been already saved it into. And, of course, he graced her with his obnoxious voice at least one every few days. Her face soften just a bit as she compared Atobe to Draco. She sighed, ignoring Akaya's look, and flipped open the sleek onyx and silver phone, staring at the air in front of her apathetically.

"Hai." She drawled lazily.

"AH! Hitomi-chan! It is Ore-sama!"

Good feeling gone, she thought idly, her soften face becoming darker. She winced at his volume, looking at the bewildered face of her companion for a moment to observe the rather funny state. She quickly snapped a picture before he could noticed, returning her attention to her phone as if nothing happened when he blinked owlishly.

"Yes, how ever did I not know that?" she drawled, switching hands as he huffed, and she could practically see him flipping his hair arrogantly.

"Yes well, Ore-sama decided to grace you with Ore-sama's voice once again."

Hitomi twitched.

"I can see that; does this call have any importance this time around?"

"Humph! Ore-sama's calls are always important, Hitomi, really you should-"

"Atobe." She growled warningly, sighing as he coughed to composed himself.

"Yes well, Ore-sama has recently gotten a call by an agency my family's company works with occasionally, and they had a such an odd and wonderful request that Ore-sama simply couldn't pass it up."

"And that is…" she urged, dragging a hand down her face.

"Well, it's a modeling agency. They wanted Ore-sama to model for them (obviously) and Ore-sama (obviously) is happy to fulfill their desires."

"What does this have to do with me?" she deadpanned, and she took in the slightly nervous cough on the other line with a creeping weariness.

"Well… you wanted to get your name out there, hm?"

-x-

"Hitomi~!"

She easily ignored the annoying wine, still lost in thought about what happened only a few hours ago.

Atobe had gone on to explain that the modeling deal would really be a short, little thing, but that they would be modeling tennis apparel and Atobe didn't know of a girl tennis player "that had the right to be in Ore-sama's presence" other than her. She still wondered exactly how that was considering he never played a match with her, let alone seen her play to begin with but she simply kept her mouth shut on that one. She didn't want to talk to him anymore than she had to.

The first concern; however, was her scars. Modeling was great, but if any of the clothes exposed her back or shoulder blades she was in trouble, not even counting the single lightning bolt scar upon her forehead. She only had one long scar on part of her stomach that wrapped around her hip and only two or so small ones on the upper back part of her thigh. She had informed Atobe of this but he waved it off, saying it was only some shorts and skirts and they wouldn't show.

She wasn't really sure if it was a particularly good idea, but considering she really couldn't access her money fully right now, it would have to do. Normally, one would think she could but while the goblins were in fact neutral in regards to the war, and would give any services requested as long as you paid a fee, it also meant that they would do the same for the opposite side of the war. She was rather lucky she had started of a Japanese bank account that was hooked up to her previous American one. She had made it while she and Draco had considered running, and had converted about one third of her first trust vault money into it. And considering the fact that the account had held over 650,000 American dollars when she had transferred it into a bank in Japan, she knew she was fine for the time being.

However, she had school fees and such to think about, so when counting all of her future and present bills, she knew she would need to get some sort of job and this seemed to be the quickest one she has encountered. So, considering this all, she decided to accept. She had a feeling she was going to regret it, but tried to push the thoughts aside as her 'coach' yelled about how she never paid any attention to him. She sighed, giving him a blank look as he finished complaining.

"Are you done yet?" she deadpanned, and he pouted. Quickly realizing this would do nothing for him he enthusiastically told her of a new training facility he had found and wanted to try it out. She agreed easily before starting her usual training regiment.

Today was going to be a long day.

-x-

**[February 25****th****; (The Day Before); Location: Unknown; 6:01 p.m.]**

"_Crucio!"_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_

"_Confringo!"_

"_Expelliarmus!_"

A teen ducks as several curses are shot towards him, cursing but dodging swiftly and with practiced ease. He grunted as a particularly nasty curse grazes his shoulder as he jumps behind an overturned table. Sighing, he listened intently as the black-clad wizards tried to get their way past his newly erected wards that keep them at a thirty feet distance from his position, and he winced as he feelt the wards strain under the pressure.

Blinking, he stared in shock as flames erupted in front of his face, purple flames blazing eagerly before flashing an eerie crimson. The flames suddenly disappeared, a folded piece of parchment fluttering to the ground by his crouched form. He blinked slowly before smiling, and though it was only a simple, tired upturn of his lips as he read the looped message on the parchment, you could see the immense relief shining in his brilliant grey eyes.

Hitomi was safe, and that's all that mattered right now, he thought, crying out in pain as the wards dropped and he hurled himself to the side, avoiding slicing hexes carefully. He grunted as he dragged his tired body to stand forcefully, pumping magic into his legs as he sprinted out of the safe house, running into the forests surrounding the house.

He could hear them coming closer, but he did nothing but push more magic into his legs, forcing his body to run faster; run longer.

He never looked back, the ashes of the previously read parchment fluttering in the breeze behind his fast moving form.

-x-

**A/N:** Err… sorry? Yes, I know this is ridiculously late, and yes I know this is rather short, BUT! There is good news! I have written ideas for the next chapter, so it should be out very very soon! (Like within the week soon!) I hope that makes it up to you all! Review! The next chapters the last chapter that i am taking requests for which school she will go to, and if it is a tie i might have her transfer sometime over the year (probably this is everyone is stuck between Seigaku and Rikkaidai.) So review!

**Preview for next chapter:** Hitomi realizes that modeling with Atobe might just bring a little more attention than she thought, she meets a teen almost as violent as her, meets another injured teen who is just as stubborn as she is, and she tries to decide where she wants to go to school.

Look forward to it!~

-x-

**Timeline:**

The Final Battle: May 2nd.

May 8th- December 17th: Draco and Harelda's Hiding time. During this time they went from secret house to secret house to hide from the left over death eaters. These locations are not limited to Britain; locations include The United States, France, Japan, and Germany.

January 5TH: Harelda finally leaves to head to the airport that will bring her to Japan. (She has already been there, but Draco and she agree that the death eaters will not expecting her to go to a place she has already been and will most likely look over Europe before anywhere.)

April 6th: School begins for Harelda. [The school is not limited to Seigaku, for your information. She could go anywhere really, so it's up to you. You can tell me your opinions through p.m. or reviews; whichever.]

June 31st: Harelda's [now Hitomi's] birthday.

December 24th: Ryoma Echizen's birthday.

September 25th: Kirihara Akaya's birthday.

-x-

-Translations-

Hai: Yes.

-x-


	5. Chapter 5: Nitoryu, And Training

-x-

**Story Title: **_Learning To Live._

**Warnings:** **G**_**ender-bender (Fem!Harry),**__ strong violence, gore, past abuse (physical and sexual) ,use of alcohol (underage) and cigarettes (underage), language, possible adult situations, Slytherin!Harry, strong!Harry, Very good tennis playing!Harry, and mild bashing of both light and dark sides._

**Story Rating:**_ Somewhere between T and M; may change to fully M._

**Chapter Rating:**_ T._

**Chapter Title:**_ Nitoryu, And Training._

**Words:**_ 7,013_

**Pages:**_ 15_

**Song:**_ What The Hell and Warrior by B.A.P_

**A/N:**_ Sorry for any possible (and probable) spelling mistakes and such! Forgive me!_

**Last Time:** _"He never looked back, the ashes of the previously read parchment fluttering in the breeze behind his fast moving form."_

-x-

**[February 27****th ****;Early Morning.]**

"Faster!"

Hitomi gritted her teeth, her face set into lines of determination as she sprinted across the courts, the sounds of her feet hitting the ground and her harsh panting reaching her ears. She eyed the green fence coming closer to her fast moving form and her eyes narrowed, lips thinning as she reached the end. Panting, she turned on her heal, a cloud of dust floating around her legs as she pivoted harshly. She leaned down, her hand coming down to touch the white line before she was off again. Her legs pushed off the ground, her body moving quickly into action as she sprinted once again to the other side of the court.

Amber eyes watched in satisfaction, the sharp orbs taking in the sweating girl that was just making her sixty first sprint. Pride lit his eyes as she never stopped; never stopping to take a breather or complain. She simply ran, fire lighting in her eyes at the challenge, her sleek body moving quickly. He smirked a bit, glancing out of the corner of his eyes and catching the shadowed figure of his son watching from his window; his cat-like eyes watching Hitomi's hard working form intensely and determination pooling in his eyes.

He smirked again, satisfied with both of his students as he focused once again on Hitomi. His eyes narrowed; however, as he noticed she slowed down a bit.

"What's this? Slowing down?"

His voice was mocking on purpose, and he watched with immense pride as she gritted her teeth visibly before taking off, faster than even before. He smirked, crossing his arms and leaning back against the building's wall.

It seemed Hitomi's fire and determination was rubbing off on his son as well, he though idly, glancing over to the side of the house as he watched his son sneak out silently, his tennis bag clutched in his hand. He blinked, looking down at his own hands and chuckling a bit, slowly unclenching them.

It seemed she lit his determination as well, he thought fondly as she watched her run, the sky just beginning to color behind the trees.

"Hitomi!" He yelled, watching as she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes, her onyx hair swaying into her face as she continued to run. He hummed in thought before answering her unvoiced question.

"What time was that appointment you had scheduled again?" he asked her lazily, smirking when she glared at him. He knew very well how much she hated to be interrupted in her training, especially being talked to when she was doing so.

"Four." She said sharply through gritted teeth, before ignoring him and making her seventy fifth sprint.

Nanjiro nodded idly, running his hand through his hair before glancing at the watch adorning his wrist. It was only 8:35; perfect. He smirked, rubbing his hands together as he looked at his student. He fought the urge to cackle as he called her over, and she eyed him oddly before finishing her eighty second sprint, her breathing harsh and ragged as she slowed down.

She breathed slowly, trying to control her rapid heart and her labored breath. Slowly, she calmed and she sighed, taking her elastic from her hair and running a hand through the sweaty locks. She idly noticed it had gotten a few inches longer before shrugging it off and walking over to her teacher, wariness settling in as she eyed his sparkling eyes.

She stopped in front of him, giving him a suspicious look. His smile only grew wider.

"Hitomi, by any chance are you ambidextrous?"

She tilted her head to the side, eyeing him carefully before slowly shaking her head, her feelings of weariness doubling as his smile sharpened.

"Really?" he asked, but he didn't seem surprised at all, she thought blankly as she eyed his excited face.

"Wonderful~! Say, have you ever heard of Nitoryu?"

She suddenly felt a bit scared.

-x-

She learned two and half hours later exactly what Nitoryu was; she also learned that she _did_ in fact have a reason to be scared.

As it turns out, Nitoryu was more of a technique than an actual tennis move. It was designed by Nanjiro himself to compensate for his weaknesses when concerning tennis, but she soon found out why not everyone could do this style of tennis.

Everyone has a dominant hand that is both stronger and more precise than their other hand, which is the exact opposite. Usually, people try to avoid using this hand because of the fact they have less control of its movements and with no control, a tennis player will perform horribly and will ultimately lose. However, Nanjiro developed a tennis move where both hands were used, and could be switched at any given moment during the game.

She had seen Ryoma use it, so she knew the basics of it and she had also seen the potential of the move. It would be rather useful, but she soon realized what kind of work she would have to put into it in order for it to even be more useful than a burden to her tennis.

She would have to learn tennis all over again.

She sighed warily, eyeing her hand as she slowly flexed it around the tennis racquet. Her left hand, that is.

She sighed again.

Running a hand through her loose hair, she eyed the machine in front of her with sharp eyes before moving over to the small box to the side of the small enclosed area around her. She slipped in some yen easily, turning the dial to the very lowest setting as well as the lowest difficulty level. She eyed the knob in distaste but knew it had to be done.

Breathing deeply she walked back to her spot in front of the machine before taking a few practice swings, wincing when she eyed the rather sloppy form. She breathed deeply once more, bending her knees and staring at the machine carefully as it shot a ball at her. She grunted when she missed the ball completely, a grimace forming on her face as she stared at the ball rolling across the room.

She sighed.

This was going to be a long day, she thought tiredly as she fell into her sloppy form once more.

-x-

"_Ring. Ring. Rin-"_

She threw a sharp glance toward the innocent looking phone before grunting in annoyance, running a hand down her sweaty face and eyeing the dozens of tennis balls surrounding her panting form. She stretched slowly before the obnoxiously loud ringtone interrupted her smooth movements and she growled, stalking over to the phone and her eyebrows lifting. It was already 2:30? She hummed idly, flipping her phone open and lazily bringing it to her ear.

"Yes?" She drawled, wincing and pulling the phone away from her ear as the sharp sounds of an angry Atobe reached her ears.

"_Where are you!?"_

"Training." She said blankly, blinking when she heard his groans of frustration.

"_You are supposed to be here! Ore-sama already told you this yesterday!"_

"No," she corrected blankly, shifting the phone to the other hand when she realized her left hand was quite sore. "You said to be there by four."

"… _Well, get over here now! Ore-sama is ready and Ore-sama hates waiting."_

"_Click."_

She slowly took the phone away from her ear to eye it with a deadpan expression before sighing. Stretching lightly, she gathered the balls into the dozen baskets by the side of the metal fence before gathering her own things. She draped the towel over her shoulders and took a sip of water, sighing in bliss when the cool liquid eased her burning throat.

Shrugging her bag over her shoulder, she walked out of the facility, jogging toward her house that was only a few blocks away. She ignored the many people roaming the streets and the flashing lights of nearby shops as she made her way to her street and jogged up her stairs. Glancing to see if anyone was around, she slowly dragged her finger down the door's ridges, following the carved pattern and adding a bit of magic as she did so. She watched in satisfaction as the wards hummed in recognition before informing her that no one had attempted to enter nor had anyone with a magical signature had neared her home. She sighed, slipping her key into the slot and opening the door. She had added the ward a few days prior, thinking it was a good idea. She wanted to be aware of her surroundings after-all.

Hearing a low purr made her smirk and glance at the shadowed corner of the room, eyeing the space. It was empty, at least to the human eye, but if one looked carefully enough you would see the shadow warp a bit at some moments. She smiled, knowing her familiar was watching over her, and ran a hand through her messy hair.

Her magic had slowly been replenished and she was almost at seventy-five percent now, a good fifteen percent more since she had arrived. It hummed contently in her core, and she could almost say it was happy at her new and, quite frankly improved, body. This of course was a comfort to her; she had felt rather empty without the usual hum and vibrancy of her magic that had been rather subdued as it slowly replenished.

Sighing she pushed her thoughts away before dropping her bag by the door and slowly taking her shirt off. She sighed in relief, untying the bandages around her chest and scratching at her back as she stepped into her bathroom. Slipping off the rest of her sweaty clothes she stepped into the shower and hummed in appreciation as the hot water hit her sore muscles.

She breathed deeply, unable to keep the sharp grin off her face.

She was getting stronger, she thought gleefully. The training had been getting even more intense since Ryoma's defeat, and her matches with Nanjiro started again, though today marked the first time in using her left hand. She was slowly getting the hang of it; she could almost feel her body adjusting despite the fact she had only started today. She could feel her left arm strengthening as she trained. Of course, this was not the fact considering it was simply the start, but she had never felt so good in her life. Tennis had done wonders to her body, she pondered idly as she scrubbed at her hair, rinsing thoroughly before washing her body.

As she felt the abs etched into her stomach, she wondered if because she was de-aged then growing up once again, if it would affect her growth the second time around. Would she get a growth spurt? Would she develop normally this time? Probably, she thought with satisfaction as she stepped out the shower and dried herself off with a towel. Making her way to her bathroom, towel wrapped around her body she eyed her wardrobe before sighing deeply and opening the doors, resigning herself to her fate.

Grabbing a pair of knee-length black boots she set them on the bed, socks following shortly after as well as an above the knee emerald dress. Humming idly, she slipped on the socks, the onyx boots following. Pushing her hair behind her ear she slipped the dress on over her head, the silky material hugging her tanned and toned body elegantly. Sitting up from the bed, she made her way over to the bathroom, brushing her hair carefully and gathering it into a side pony tail, that was really only possible because it had grown rather quickly. She curled the shorter pieces to frame her face, lining her eyes in black liner then applying mascara lightly. Gliding clear gloss over her plump lips she sighed again, brushing a piece of hair away from her acid green eyes.

She stared into the mirror intently, nodding in approval before grabbing her usual black bag and slipping on a simple black sweater she set off to Atobe's at an easy pace, smiling softly as the wind played with her hair a bit.

Normally, she wasn't one for dressing up or anything of the sort, but she was friends with Draco Malfoy and with that title came a demand at knowing how to pull one's self together. It had taken a long time for her to be able to make herself up to Malfoy standards, but by the time she was done Narcissa was calling for an engagement. She smiled wryly at the thought. Too bad, she thought darkly, it would never happen considering the woman was dead.

Draco's mother had died early on in the war by her own 'Master'. She had refused to receive the mark, and foolishly thinking the Dark Lord would accept such treachery, said it to his face. Of course, she died for her idiocy, but Draco still felt for her. Perhaps not out of love, but he cared for her enough to be sad over her death. She was never really his mother anyway; she thought before sighing, turning once more before her thoughts were halted as her phone rang obnoxiously.

Groaning, she rummaged around for her phone before taking it out.

"What?" she snapped. Atobe huffed.

"_Where are you!?"_ he screeched, and she refrained from throwing the phone at the ground.

"I am heading over Atobe." She said simply.

"_What? No you're not; Felix has said no such thing."_ He said haughtily.

"What?" She asked, honestly confused.

"_I sent a limo to retrieve you."_

She sighed, looking over to the sign nearest to her and telling him where she was so that this Felix man could pick her up. She leant against the telephone pole idly, ignoring the birds calling from the sky. She did jump a bit; however, when a surprised voice called her name. Blinking, she turned to face where the voice had come from and raised an eyebrow as emerald eyes met golden.

"Hey." She said simply, raising a hand in greeting. He continued to look at her in a blank expression before surprise pooled into his eyes. She looked at him questing.

"You look… like a girl." He said bluntly, oblivious to the deadpan expression of his companion as she stared at him.

"Yes, that's because I am." She drawled, more amused at his statement than anything. He blinked before shrugging, stifling a yawn as he shouldered his tennis bag. He shot her a look form the corner of his eye.

"What are you doing here?" he asked lazily. Her lips thinned; lines of annoyance marking her face and contorting her normal blank expression. Ryoma blinked, realizing that the annoyance wasn't meant for him and sighed, not entirely sure he wanted her in such a mood while he was around.

"Meeting someone." Was all she said. Ryoma looked at her oddly but shrugged, not really the type to push such things. He blinked suddenly, turning toward her fully with a sudden comprehending expression, though it was tinged with annoyance.

"Ah. I almost forgot. Oyaji said something about wanting to have you over for dinner." Ryoma said simply, eyes half lidded as he yawned once again. Hitomi gave him a searching look.

"And when does he want this dinner to happen?" she asked blankly, not liking the sound of a dinner with their family. It wasn't that she didn't like them, but she couldn't afford for them to find out about her emancipation and her orphan status, at least not this close into the game. They would feel it was their duty to watch over her, and she couldn't afford having them watching her like a hawk when she had things to do that weren't muggle.

Or entirely legal, for that matter.

"No idea; probably sometime tomorrow or something." He said, shrugging. Hitomi hummed before blinking in surprise as a sleek white limo pulled up in front of the two. Sighing, she pushed back a lock of hair and turned to Ryoma.

"I apologize, but I cannot attend diner this week. I am, unfortunately caught up in many things. Perhaps another time." She said evenly, waiting for the cat-eyed boy to nod. Hitomi waved to Ryoma, watching as he waved back slowly, eyeing the limo weirdly before shrugging and walking off. Hitomi slipped into the limo, crossing her legs elegantly as the driver glanced at her in his mirror, surprise in his eyes.

"Hitomi-sama, I presume?" he asked, his accent heavy. She inclined her head, watching as his lips twitched into a smile, brown eyes warm.

"Ah, I see. As I'm sure you know, I am Felix. Atobe-sama is most anxious." He stated easily as he drove off, turning the corner before glancing at her briefly in the mirror. Her blank face never faltered as she hummed a bit.

"Yes, I assumed so." She said simply, and the man smiled at her once more before continuing to drive, an easy silence falling over them.

Hitomi glanced at the window, an almost numb feeling surrounding her as she eyed the blurred city outside the tinted windows. It was odd, but comfortable enough for her to close her eyes for a moment. She never realized that sleep had taken her into its hold for a while until the car slowed. Hitomi blinked open her eyes in surprise when she realized that they had stopped and glanced out the window, eyeing the rather large mansion with an unsurprised face. She rolled her eyes briefly before her face evened out and she followed Felix into the lavish white mansion.

She ignored the wonderfully sculpted statues, gracefully trickling waterfalls, and pristine sparkling floors in favor of simply following Felix down the hall, and soon they were stopped in front of a pair of large double doors. The dark washed wood was carved into, the angels and their wings beautifully detailed as they flew and danced; wispy clouds wrapping around their legs. Felix knocked on the door once, and while his hand was raised for the next, the door flew open reveling an irritated Atobe.

"Where _were_ you? It's already 3:45 and-!" he trailed off, staring at Hitomi oddly before a smirk pulled at his lips, his back resting against the door frame as his eyes trailed along her form.

"Hmm. Ore-sama _knew_ it." He stated smugly, eyes sparkling as he continued to stare. Hitomi was tempted to grab his bait and ask what he knew, but ended up simply ignoring him. Pushing past him she walking gracefully into the room, eyeing the large, white drop-back at the back of the large room, as well as the large metal fans, and elaborate lights surrounding the area she knew they would take the pictures. Hitomi glanced at Atobe sharply, taking satisfaction in his wince.

"And where, exactly, are these picture going Atobe?" she asked, eyeing his face. She inwardly smirked at his frozen expression, enjoying his almost frighten eyes as she pinned him with a look. Of course, she knew exactly where these photos were going. It really wasn't all the hard considering who she was taking them with. Though that didn't stop her from hoping, just the tiniest bit, that they didn't go world-wide or something or the sort. She didn't think she could deal with the whole evil fan-group thing again, she thought with a concealed shudder.

Atobe smiled, though it was tight with a small amount of nervousness, his pompous nature not exactly veiling the emotion from her skilled eyes.

"A few middle school sports magazines; nothing much." He said simply, flipping his hair and making his way to a tall tan man leaning against the wall. They conversed for a bit, Atobe smirking in satisfaction as he returned and pushed her towards a woman with long blonde hair and light blue eyes. They shined gleefully as they met her form, and Hitomi suddenly didn't feel like taking pictures. She clapped her hands, practically vibrating in excitement as she twirled a piece of golden hair around her slender finger.

"Oh yes, I can work with this darling." She purred, smirking. Hitomi remained rather blank. The woman circled her nodding in approval as her eyes narrowed.

"We'll keep your make-up. It's neutral enough for sports photos." She said simply, grabbing her hand and rushing out of the room and into the changing room. Hitomi resigned herself to her fate, easily following the woman and her quick pace.

"So, Atobe-san said something about scars?" she asked, eyeing her. Hitomi stared at her sharply before nodding, face emotionless. The woman nodded thoughtfully, humming to herself.

"Okay, that's fine. It will probably help the image anyway! Any scars on your face?"

Hitomi shook her head, glad she placed a weak glamour on the scar on her forehead, and the woman nodded again. Opening the curtain to a single stall, she shoved Hitomi inside, informing her to put on the outfit hanging on the back of the door. Hitomi sighed, slipping off her boots, before looking at her clothes, her face going pale.

She sighed heavily, slipping off her shirt and the rest of her clothes following. She put on the provided clothes, stepping out and placing her hand on her hip as she stared at the woman evenly. The blonde squealed, causing her to wince.

"Oh my god, you look great!"

"I barely have clothes on." Hitomi deadpanned, and the woman ignored her statement gracefully, dragging her out of the stall and down the hall.

"Details, details darling! Now," she stated, pushing Hitomi onto a chair and spinning her to face a large mirror.

"Let's work with your hair a bit."

Hitomi closed her eyes, allowing the woman to do what she willed as her thoughts consumed her. It was a tough decision; allowing herself to model and have pictures taken, that was. Perhaps, in normal cases bringing attention to one's self when dangerous men are after your blood would be what you should _not _be doing, but she realized that she could apply the same logic she used when she decided to come to Japan.

When Draco and Hitomi had been running, they had indeed traveled through Japan rather briefly, so it made sense that she wouldn't pick such a place to try to settle in. That was the whole reason they had decided on Japan. If she brought attention to herself, the Death Eaters would not even bother looking at the people who were in the limelight; they would automatically assume, and rightly so, that she would be the mysterious girl next door if anything; the introverted, quite, and most likely, mildly suspicious teen age girl that she was. Of course, the potion used to de-age her didn't technically exist, and the only reason Draco was able to make it was because Severus had left some old notes on the potion that he had worked on before he was killed. This would work in her favor, but as all things, there was a down side.

If she was caught, then yes her absence would be noted. She had not truly wanted to make many connections with others when she moved here, but it seemed as if she didn't really have a choice considering the amount of people she had already interacted with. No, she hadn't meant to have it this way, but it was the way things worked out and she knew that things usually went more smoothly if you just went with the flow of things.

Of course, this was all assuming these pictures caught the eye of someone, but she would be naïve if she thought they wouldn't be known. She knew enough about Atobe to know that when he did things, he did them big. It was only natural (for him at least) to have these pictures be printed in famous tennis and sports magazines alike by noon tomorrow. It was, after-all, why Atobe was so damn useful. He never knew he was indeed manipulated for her sake, but it didn't really matter if he knew or not. He didn't need to know that she steadily and easily turned their short and rather explosive conversations towards jobs, publicity and sports. Then of course came tennis, then came Atobe's "wonderful-ness", and then came fans. It was only a matter of time until they reached this conclusion, at least under her prompting.

She inwardly cackled a bit, happy that she had so much practice with manipulating people due to their strong emotions when she had dealt with Draco in the past. Her thoughts saddened a bit. She missed him, though she would never say it out loud. Draco and she had been unlikely friends, especially with their brief beginning.

His family being a very prominent Dark one, and her's being a prominent Light one. Him being said to be Slytherin's Heir, and she, the Light's Golden Girl. It was unlikely, almost impossible, but it had developed into something that she would never give up for anything.

A small smile pulled at her lips as she thought of their first meeting.

He had been getting fitted in Diagon Alley, and he foolishly displayed his childishness as well as his arrogance. He had flaunted his name, and throwing threats of his Father left and right. She had become so incensed with him she had destroyed the stool he was standing on with accidental magic. She almost snorted at the funny scene they had made, before her thoughts halted when the woman squealed in her ears.

Ugh.

With a blink she looked up and into the mirror, staring in surprise at her own reflection. The woman had let down her hair, letting it fall in waves to a few inches below her shoulders, small pieces curled by her face, and some outlining her elegantly angled cheeks and chin. Her bangs were windswept and curled the tiniest bit, the ends falling into place along her cheeks. The woman seemed to think she wanted to add a bit to her make-up sometime during her adventure with her hair and had outlined her eyes in a smoky black eye-shadow, making her acid green eyes glow.

She was impressed despite herself; the woman knew her profession well.

She stood swiftly, ignoring the woman chatting beside her and complementing her as she walked into the large room, blocking the light with her hand before honing in on Atobe.

He had no shirt on, only a pair of fairly baggy black sweat pants that hung low on his hips, showing a sliver of his boxers. His chest was toned to perfection, the pale skin hard with a six pack and his arms lined with muscle. He looked rather attractive really, but Hitomi ignored her own thoughts as she made her way over to him, smirking when he looked at her and froze.

She was wearing a black sports bra that hugged her chest and matched his pants, showing off her strong toned stomach. She wore short black shorts that showed off her tanned and tones legs nicely, a small line of green going down the sides further adding to the look. Of course, the jagged scar that started at the side of her stomach and circled to her back showed. As well as the other smaller scars that littered her abs, a few on her arms, and the one large one that ran down her left leg.

She put a hand to her hip, raising a brow at the slightly pink teen before her. He coughed, smirking and dragged her to the white back-drop and setting her in the middle before walking back toward the tall man before. He turned to her when he was done, throwing her a small bottle. She caught it with a single hand, bringing it down to her eyes and looking at it with a narrowed gaze.

"Oil?" she asked slowly, glancing at Atobe from the corner of her eye when she saw him smirk. The tall man answered this time; brown eyes twinkling and shaggy brown hair flying as he paced before her. She assumed he was the photographer.

"Yes, yes. Apply that to your body; everywhere that's visible if you please." He said cheerfully, and she twitched before doing so, ignoring the looks from Atobe. When she was done she chucked it at him, the bottle hitting his head. He glared at her, but she simply smirked and said nothing to defend her actions.

She eyed the photographer with hidden wariness, but listened carefully as he handed her a racket. All he told her was to pose, and she had no idea what to do so her first few pictures were rather awkward before she sighed, relaxed her face, and let her eye lids droop. She vaguely heard rapid clicking but she ignored it, trying to think of this as just another challenge. She leaned most of her weight on her left leg, her right hand resting on her hip and her left bringing the racket to rest on her shoulder. She looked at the camera with a blank stare, never noticing the shocked looks of Atobe.

Slowly, the pictures became more natural, and she easily posed as the photographer wished, ignoring the fact that some were a bit… provocative, or at least partially for her "age". She sighed when the happy photographer called a break, brushing stray hairs away from her face and taking a deep sip of water, watching Atobe from the corner of her eyes. He had yet to pose for anything yet, and she idly wondered why the pompous teen would delay being in front of the cameras for so long.

"Atobe." She called, watching a he turned toward her. She gave him a questioning look.

"Am I intimidating you? Decided not to take any pictures?" she asked mockingly, knowing that he would react just as he did.

He huffed, ranted a bit of his prowess, and placed himself in front of the camera. She blinked in surprise when he did very well actually, his face serious as he faced the camera, an occasional smirk gracing his face. She shook her head; she should have expected it really. She watched as he took numerous shots, not one taken of him with his stance awkward or unsure. It seemed he either had lots of practice or was just a natural at this. She guessed a bit of both.

When he finally stopped she sighed in relief, thinking it was the end. Not so much.

"Ah-ah-ah! Where do you think you're going? You still have to take pictures with Ore-sama."

Dread flooded her being.

-x-

When everything was done she had quickly gotten into the limo, happy at leaving Atobe's mansion and the camera.

Hitomi sighed tiredly as she stared out the window, the sky dark and the air cool as it danced into her open window and brushed her face. She hummed in enjoyment, happy at the feel of coolness on her tired and drooping face.

Training had taken a lot out of her, and so had the pictures surprisingly, and all she wanted to do now was sleep. She thanked Felix as she closed her door, walking along the path to her front door and quickly running her finger down the door and putting her key into the slot. She dropped her bag loudly, trudging toward her bed and falling face first onto it with a tired sigh.

She buried her face into the silk sheets, happy that she had taken a shower at Atobe's so she could get the make-up and oil off. Now, she could simply fall asleep; she would have been much too tired to take a shower if she hadn't already at Atobe's and would have likely just slept. Ripping off her boots and pulling the dress off, she quickly slipped a long white shirt on and sighed in relief as she rubbed a hand through her hair and down her face.

She climbed under the covers and immediately fell asleep, never noticing the amulet around her neck glowing red or the shadow that darted across her window and into the night.

-x-

**[March 10****st****; 13 Days Later; 7:35 a.m.]**

"You know, school will be starting soon."

The casual tone to the voice immediately grabbed Hitomi's attention, and she slowed in her stretches, her leg pausing half-way to its straight and pointed position. She eyed her teacher warily, not entirely liking his sparkling eyes yet not feeling inclined enough to question him. He had produced wonderful results in an almost inhuman amount of time, and she certainly wasn't going to start complaining now.

Then again, the last time she had confronted his sparkly eyes was when he had started her on her new training….

Yeah, she wasn't going to ask.

Gracefully dismissing him, and ignoring his pout with ease, she stretched her leg slowly, her hand clasping the top half of her foot and her muscles flexing as she lifted her leg to right next to her face. She ran a hand down the calf muscle, breathing slowly as her leg was brought back down then repeating the processes with the other leg. Strength, stamina, and techniques were all well and good but flexibility proved to be practically invaluable on the court in many of her matches with Nanjiro.

Her thoughts wandered as she sank onto the ground, legs parting in a split. She had, quite honestly, forgotten about school as well as the fact it would start in early April, barely a month away. She winced, knowing that no matter where she went she would be having problems getting in because she waited so long.

There was also the problem of no school papers from grades fourth and fifth, though she doubted it would matter too much considering the files would be invalid in Japan. She had planned to simply say she was home-schooled in her orphanage; money too rare and little for her to get an education at an actually facility. And considering the fact she did indeed have the forms proving her presence in a St. Agatha's Orphanage somewhere in a small town of England, she assumed it would be fine as long as she tested in to the classes that she knew would be for an older age group.

But the question now was which school did she want to go to?

She had considered this rather carefully, but the two places she had narrowed it down to were Rikkaidai and Seigaku. Seigaku would probably be the easiest, considering Nanjiro's recommendation as well as the easy fifteen minute walk to the school. Rikkaidai would be harder to get to (a lot harder), and would take a lot longer time-wise. Though, Akaya went there and they were the top school in terms of the Middle School division.

She sighed, deciding that she would make her decision later. She might even visit the school first. She paused, her arms supporting her hovering figure; legs spread in a split but simply above the ground. Yes, that sounded like a good idea, she decided, slowly balancing and working her muscles to put her legs together behind her and lifted her body into a handstand.

She grunted, slowly bending her arms, watching the ground through narrowed eyes. Sweat traveled down her cheek to her chin, dripping onto the cement and making her concentrate even more. Exhaling slowly, she slowly lifted her right arm away from the ground. Cutting off a gasp that almost forced its way out of her lips she huffed as her left arm shook. Grunting she straightened her arm before bending it once again.

She breathed through her nose, her whole body shaking and quivering. Her left arm was much weaker than her right, but she needed to condition it and the only way to make it stronger was to work it as much as her body allowed.

She repeated her one handed hand-stand push-ups, making sure to go slow to ensure all of her muscles were targeted. Finally, after thirty reps she collapsed, her face digging into the concrete almost painfully. She wheezed, ignoring the concerned voice of her teacher. Sitting up shakily, she cursed when she eyed her quivering hand and clenched it, forcing it to stop. She breathed deeply, glaring at her teacher and silencing his useless questions and concerns.

"I'm fine." She stated coldly, before dragging herself to her feet. She swayed dangerously for a moment before stilling herself quickly.

"Maybe you should take a break…" Nanjiro said unsurely, worry in his golden eyes. Hitomi ignored him and walked purposefully toward her towel and water.

She wouldn't stop, she though fiercely as water sloshed into her mouth before she spit it out. She poured some over her head and closed her eyes for a moment, heavy breathing breaking the otherwise complete silence. She wouldn't stop until she mastered it.

Acid green eyes glared out into the early morning sky.

She would never stop.

-x-

"How is that student of yours doing, dear?"

Nanjiro blinked, looking up into his wife's shining brown eyes and suddenly realizing he had been spacing out this whole time. He shot her a sheepish grin, ignoring the knowing look she gave him as he yawned and scratched at his cheek.

"She is improving. That girl sure can train." He uttered, watching as his wife slowly frowned, gently placing his cup of tea in front of him.

"Yes, I have seen her… actually, I'm pretty sure she's still training outside. Won't you stop her? This is a bit much."

Nanjiro sighed warily, rubbing a hand down his tanned face. "I've tried. Really I have. I had forgotten how old she really is and I told her that maybe she should take a break or something; she just won't listen."

His wife fiddled with her napkin, worriedly biting at her lip before facing her bored-looking son. Determination lit her eyes as she stared, and Ryoma inwardly winced at the look.

"Will you invite her in for some diner Ryoma?"

He gave her an annoyed look but quickly left the table as her face steadily got more annoyed and angry. She could be quite scary when she wanted to be, he thought irritably, walking outside and around the temple to the back courts. He paused, peering into sickly yellow eyes as a black cat rubbed along his leg, twisting and turning between the two appendages. He blinked, squatting a bit to pet the beautiful black cat only for the feline to dance away from his hands, its eyes looking into his own, and for some reason he felt… odd…

Blinking slowly, he grabbed the cat gently, lifting it to his shoulder before walking to the courts. He made his way slowly; eyeing the panting form of one of the few people he respected and squinted when his eyes went blurry for a moment. He shook it off, before walking up to her, prompting her to glance at him from her position on the ground. She glared a bit, but said nothing as he told her of his mother's inquiries, and for some reason adding his mother's determination. He started to wonder why he would say such a thing, before the thought swiftly melted away, as if it was never there.

Hitomi looked at him for a long moment before she stood and grabbed her empty water bottle along with her towel. She turned to him for a moment, and Ryoma almost thought he saw amusement flash behind her eyes when they briefly glanced at the cat on his shoulder before they evened out once again. She bid him farewell and he left to go into the house without protest, the cat jumping from his shoulders and disappearing into the bushes.

His mother was rather miffed at him, and it left him wondering why he never tried to convince the girl to stay.

He never thought of the odd cat that had silently slinked away after he had entered his house.

He would never remember.

-x-

Note: Bam. Done. Actually, I feel really bad, since this has been on my computer for oh… months… *cough* I apologize, but it is different than the summary I put before because I decided I was going to space out the events a bit more to help with the flow of things. I hope you enjoyed, and please review!

Chapters will be up more frequently now, since I've found myself with a bit of time (yay).

I hope you enjoyed, and thank you for your time.

I appreciate it!

-Loveless xoxo

-x-


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